Language is produced by the human cerebral cortex, and the brain waves associated with the speech process can be recorded directly with EEG electrodes. Recently, researchers at several institutions, including the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and the Wadsworth Center in the United States, have demonstrated for the first time that the basic units of sustained speech, DD words and complete sentences, can be reconstructed from these brainwaves, and that corresponding texts can be generated. They describe this “Brain-to-text” system in a recent issue of Frontiers in Neuroscience. ”People have long wondered whether it is possible to communicate with machines through brain activity alone, and our results are an important step in that direction.” Tanya, of the KIT Cognitive Systems Laboratory, who directed the research? Schultz said, “Our study shows that both individual units in speech, and sentences uttered consecutively, can be recognized by brain activity.” The results were achieved through a collaboration between researchers in informatics, neuroscience and medicine, according to a recent report on the Daily Science website.KIT developed and used signal processing and automatic speech recognition methods.KIT Cognitive Systems Lab’s Kristin? Herf and Dominic? Hedge said, “In addition to decoding speech from brain activity, our model is able to analyze in detail the brain regions associated with the speech process and the interactions between them.” They developed the system in their doctoral dissertation. The researchers note that this is the first time that sustained speech can be decoded and converted into text form based on patterns of brain activity. To do this, cortical information must be combined with linguistic knowledge and machine learning algorithms to select the most likely word order. Although the current “Brain D Text” system is still based on speech, it is an important first step in identifying the language of people’s thoughts. The researchers recorded brain activity from seven patients with epilepsy who had electrode arrays (ECoG) placed on the surface of their cerebral cortex for treatment purposes. The researchers recorded the ECoG signals at high resolution as the patients read aloud example texts. The Karlsruhe researchers then analyzed the data and developed the “Brain D Text” system. In addition to contributing to basic science and helping people better understand the complex speech processes in the brain, the results will also help develop new language communication tools that can be fixed on patients to help them communicate in the future.