Self-paced silent speech brain-computer interface for device control
Abstract Brain-computer interfaces can potentially restore autonomy to people with paralysis, including the ability to control their own environment via smart devices in the home. BCI applications for controlling smart devices to date have required visual displays or auditory cues, limiting the user’s ability to autonomously and privately issue commands. In this study, a clinical trial participant with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) used a chronically implanted electrocorticographic (ECoG) BCI to control smart devices with self-paced silent speech commands. Across 18 experimental sessions, silently mimed speech commands were detected in real time and decoded with a median accuracy of 97.1% (chance: 7.14%) and the median correct decodes per minute was 11.86. These results demonstrate that silently attempted speech can be reliably decoded without exogenous timing cues, supporting the feasibility of reliable autonomous smart device control with an implantable BCI.
Authors
- Donna Clark Tippett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9485-9745)
- Christopher G. Coogan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6221-5264)
- Nicholas John Maragakis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7311-9614)
- Matthew S. Fifer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3425-7552)
- Miguel Angrick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7050-3397)
- Shiyu Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1650-9250)
- Hynek Heřmanský (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8032-4811)
- William Stanley Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0958-050X)
- Francesco V. Tenore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1197-9643)
- Nathan E. Crone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7950-2617)
- Anouck Schippers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8245-1857)
- Lora Clawson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5364-9255)
- Griffin Milsap (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2848-1032)
- Nick F. Ramsey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7136-259X)
- Chad R. Gordon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7708-7915)
- Daniel N. Candrea (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8882-6658)
- Mariska J. Vansteensel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9252-5116)
- Kimberley Wyse‐Sookoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7321-905X)
- Rohit Ganji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7671-4361)
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US)
- University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Biology
- Published
- 2026-11-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10477-5
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.30
Funders
- Johns Hopkins University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke