Hello all,
I had the opportunity to trial a BCI device with a locked-in patient this past weekend.  The "start-up" company from Italy was in the area participating in an engineering competition at Berkeley.  Apparently they received their initial development money from the Italian ALS association.  I got their name from another slp in the area that participated in a demo at the UC San Francisco ALS clinic.  I wanted to briefly share my experience with you as this is of course a topic of much interest.
 
The patient has been "locked in" for several years  and only has a brief and inconsistent eye movement to the right which sometimes takes several seconds in order to perform, and cannot maintain open eyes.  Her family recently obtained the Emotiv headset and the cognitiv suite which she had attempted a few times.  She had begun to achieve some proficiency in "push"  and "spin"  and moving the box against the wall.  The anticipation of the family was to just get one consistent and prompt response they could use as "yes"  and continue with partner assisted scanning for communication.
 
The company (see www.braincontrol.it) had two representatives present for the demo/trial.  There is a good representation of the communication page on the video on the website.   For this trial, three message boxes were scanned (yes, no, I don't know).  The user was required to produce the "push" thought for 5 seconds in order to activate the message, then go into the "relax" thought.  This is an entire audio scanning program, in that no vision is required to participate. 
 
This company also uses the Emotiv headset.  The initial 1.5-2 hour trial was promising.  The great thing about this company is that they are offering "rental" of the software on a monthly basis and then will apply 50% of the rental toward the purchase. 
 
I am proceeding with a trial with this patient as the family is quite savvy with the equipment and the patient demonstrates great potential. 
 
If any of you are aware of any potential funding for a long term purchase of this software I would certainly appreciate the information.  If any have had experience with this company, I would also appreciate this feedback. 
 
I am looking to try and develop more of a standardized trial or training.  I also hope to write this up as a case study.  If you have any suggestions for me I would certainly appreciate any and all advice or thoughts. 
 
FYI as a side note.  This has been a interest to me since I went to a lecture on biofeedback in 1977.  I am, of course,  guardedly optimistic....but more optimistic.

Thank you all for your contributions to this forum.  I learn so much from it.
 
Most sincerely,
 
Mary A Johnson, MA CCC-slp
Speech-Language Pathologist
(916) 698-5752
FAX (866) 848-1366