Dr. Stephen Hawking’s
SAN DIEGO — Already surrounded by machines that allow him, painstakingly, to communicate, the physicist
Stephen Hawking last summer donned what looked like a rakish black headband that held a feather-light
device the size of a small matchbox. Called the
iBrain, this simple-looking contraption is part of an experiment that aims to allow Dr. Hawking — long paralyzed by
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — to communicate by merely thinking.
The iBrain is part of a new generation of portable neural devices and
algorithms intended to monitor and diagnose conditions like
sleep apnea, depression and
autism. Invented by a team led by Philip Low, a 32-year-old neuroscientist who is chief executive of
NeuroVigil,
a company based in San Diego, the iBrain is gaining attention as a
possible alternative to expensive sleep labs that use rubber and plastic
caps riddled with dozens of electrodes and usually require a patient to
stay overnight.
“The iBrain can collect data in real time in a person’s own bed, or when
they’re watching TV, or doing just about anything,” Dr. Low said.
The device uses a single channel to pick up waves of electrical brain
signals, which change with different activities and thoughts, or with
the pathologies that accompany brain disorders.
But the raw waves are hard to read because they must pass through the
many folds of the brain and then the skull, so they are interpreted with
an algorithm that Dr. Low first created for his Ph.D., earned in 2007
at the University of California, San Diego. (The
original research, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, was done on zebra finches.)
About the Hawking experiment, he said, “The idea is to see if Stephen
can use his mind to create a consistent and repeatable pattern that a
computer can translate into, say, a word or letter or a command for a
computer.”
The researchers traveled to Dr. Hawking’s offices in Cambridge, England,
fitted him with the iBrain headband and asked him “to imagine that he
was scrunching his right hand into a ball,” Dr. Low said. “Of course, he
can’t actually move his hand, but the motor cortex in his brain can
still issue the command and generate electrical waves in his brain.”
The algorithm, called Spears, was able to discern Dr. Hawking’s thoughts
as signals, which were represented as a series of spikes on a grid.
“We wanted to see if there was any change in the signal,” Dr. Low said.
“And in fact, we did see a change in the signal.” NeuroVigil plans to
repeat the study in large populations of patients with
A.L.S. and other neurodegenerative diseases.
These preliminary results come as Dr. Hawking’s ability to communicate
diminishes as his disease progresses. The 70-year-old physicist, whose
mind has produced crucial insights in theoretical physics as well as the
best-seller “A Brief History of Time,” now needs several minutes to
generate a simple message. He uses a pair of infrared glasses
that picks up twitches in his cheek. His team in Cambridge, England, has
dubbed this the “cheek switch.”
“Dr. Low and his company have done some outstanding work in this field,”
Dr. Hawking said in a statement. “I am participating in this project in
the hope that I can offer insights and practical advice to NeuroVigil. I
wish to assist in research, encourage investment in this area, and,
most importantly, to offer some future hope to people diagnosed with
A.L.S. and other neurodegenerative conditions.”
The physicist has also worked with other inventors seeking to better
elucidate his thoughts. Engineers at the semiconductor and computing
giant Intel recently hooked up a customized computer to communicate with
his cheek-reading infrared glasses, along with a voice synthesizer, a
webcam for using Skype, and special monitors. Intel is developing new
face-recognition software that can monitor subtle changes in expression
and may help Dr. Hawking communicate more efficiently.
Scientists not connected with Dr. Low say they are encouraged by the
iBrain’s potential.
“Philip Low’s device is one of the best
single-channel brain monitors out there,” said Ruth O’Hara, an associate
professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences at Stanford University Medical School. She
plans to use the iBrain for autism studies. NeuroVigil has not said what
the device will cost.
“I can’t speak to the veracity of his latest data,” which has not been
published, Dr. O’Hara added, “but the preliminary data I have seen is
compelling. It could be a significant contribution to the field as a
window into brain architecture.”
Dr. Terry Heiman-Patterson, a neurologist and A.L.S. specialist at the
Drexel University College of Medicine, said she was in discussions with
NeuroVigil to use the device on A.L.S. patients, to see how they fared
with it in comparison with instruments that use multiple channels and
electrodes.
“Dr. Low is researching signals that look for intent, which is becoming
very exciting because it looks like they may be able to do it — for
Stephen Hawking and for others with A.L.S.,” Dr. Heiman-Patterson said.
“Patients want to be able to communicate beyond the yes or no with an
eye blink. They want to send an e-mail, and turn off the light and, even
more, to have a meaningful conversation.”
Monitors like the iBrain are also being used to assess whether
experimental neurological drugs are working in clinical trials.
In 2009, NeuroVigil completed a deal with the drug giant Hoffmann-La
Roche to test the iBrain. Neither company has released details of their
early tests. NeuroVigil’s strategy, Dr. Low said, is to run clinical
trials with Roche and other partners in industry and academia, and to
seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Other companies also make single-channel brain monitors, but unlike
NeuroVigil they sell the devices and software directly to consumers
online.
Zeo, for example, based in
Massachusetts, concentrates on measuring sleep patterns through a
smartphone app or a clock-radio device — available for $99 and $143,
respectively.
Emotiv Systems, in
San Francisco, offers its Epoc headset for $299 plus a range of apps and
add-ons that include neurofeedback, 3-D brain-mapping tools and games
like Angry Birds, all using a combination of thoughts and facial muscle
movements recorded by several electrodes that are in contact with a
customer’s head.
“We have no plans to take an academic route,” said Zeo’s chief
executive, Dave Dickinson, who added that his company’s customers had
logged one million hours of sleep time. He would not say how many
devices had been sold. Emotiv was founded in 2003 and has reportedly
shipped 10,000 devices.
Dr. Low plans to team up again with Dr. Hawking this summer in Cambridge to present their initial data at a
neuroscience meeting
in early July. NeuroVigil will continue to work with Dr. Hawking and
his team to refine their technology to decipher signals generated by Dr.
Hawking’s thoughts. “At the moment I think my cheek switch is faster”
than the brain-computer interface, Dr. Hawking said in an e-mail sent by
an assistant, “ but should the position change I will try Philip Low’s
system.”
Much work remains, however, including the integration of Dr. Hawking’s
brain waves with the computers and devices that allow him to
communicate.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” Dr. Low said, “to have a mind like Stephen
Hawking’s be able to communicate even a little bit better?”
