That is a pretty accurate summary.  When IntendiX works, it is great.  When it does not, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of tools to figure out why.  There do not yet seem to be other BCI options commercially available that I trust as real BCIs.  I’ve been talking with a company that would be interested in developing BCI access to their communication systems, but so far, the funding is not available.   If you are going the IntendiX route, I would suggest trying it sooner rather than later, though.  In general, BCI research has shown people with ALS seem more successful at maintaining the ability to use a BCI as physical function fails than they are at learning it AFTER physical function has completely failed.  That is probably still anecdotal, but worth considering. 

 

---------------------------------------------------------

Jane E. Huggins, Ph.D.;  xxxxxx@umich.edu

 

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science,

the one that heralds new discoveries, is not

'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's

funny...'."  -- Isaac Asimov

 

From: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com [mailto:xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Edward Hitchcock
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 12:08 PM
To: 'xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com'
Subject: Current BCI intervention

 

Good morning all. Just writing to make sure that I am relatively up-to-date on what is most current for BCI in terms of available application?

 

I have a client who is ventilator dependent and had been successfully utilizing LC technology eyegaze. At this point we are losing some ability to move his eyes and I would like to begin preparing for next steps. There are a few things we can do to try to maximize the eyegaze edge which we are pursuing.  I have discussed EMG versus EEG with them.

 

I have a previously failed implementation of Intendix from Guger technology (I was able to get it to work pretty nicely, but for unknown reasons we were unable to get it functional with my end-stage ALS client). I don't mind reaching out to them again but I wanted to see if anyone else had any other ideas? Or other commercially available options?

 

I was going to take a look at Emotiv again, not necessarily optimistic about it but given the cost differential I thought I would consider it with them. But I have never really seen it working consistently for EEG…

 

I also let them know about brain gate but I also know it is on the east or west coast only and not sure if they are still doing it for ALS?

 

PS, if anyone knows anyone in Chicagoland who is a bit better at this than I am I am very open to hearing about it!

 

Thanks for any input, Ed.

 

Ed Hitchcock OT/L

Technology Center

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

 

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