New brain scanner helps paralysed people spell words A new brain
scanner has been developed to help people who are completely
paralysed speak by enabling them to spell words using their
thoughts. It uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
to help patients choose between 27 characters - the alphabet and
a blank space. Each character produces a different pattern of
blood flow in the brain, and the device interprets these
patterns. The British Neurological Association called the
research "exciting". The study appears in Current Biology
journal of Cell Press. fMRI is normally used to track brain
activity by measuring blood flow.Earlier research The new
technology is based on earlier applications of the technique,
which used free-letter spelling to allow people to answer the
equivalent of multiple-choice questions with just a few possible
answers. British neuroscientist Adrian Owen, for instance, used
fMRI to help a man believed to have been in a vegetative state
for five years to answer "yes" and "no" q