Hope for paralysed patients: ‘The brain speaks’ In what could let severely paralysed people speak with their thoughts, scientists claim to have found evidence that the human brain speaks. In a study, a team at University of Utah translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain, ‘The Journal of Neural Engineering’ reports. “We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralysed patients who cannot now speak,” said lead scientist Prof Bradley Greger.Because the method needs much more improvement and involves placing electrodes on the brain, the scientists say it will be a few years before clinical trials on paralysed people who cannot speak due to so-called “locked-in syndrome“.In their study, the scientists showed the feasibility of translating brain signals into computer-spoken words. They placed grids of tiny microelect...