Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
An inner speech neuroprosthesis
Inner speech—purely imagined words—produces reliable motor cortex signals. An intracortical BCI decoded self-paced imagined sentences with low error rates (14% for 50 words, 26% for 125,000 words) at conversational speeds (145 wpm), faster than attempted speech (59–97 wpm). Even spontaneous inner speech, like counting, was detectable, and software safeguards prevent unintended decoding of private thoughts.
This team won the 1st place of the BCI Award 2025. Learn more: bci-award.com/2025
E. M. Kunz 1*, B. Abramovich Krasa 1*, K. Hussain 1*, F. Kamdar 1, D. Avansino 1, N. Hahn 1, S. Yoon 1, A. Singh 1, S. R. Nason-Tomaszewski 2, N. S. Card 3, J. J. Jude 4, B. Jacques 2, M. Rigotti-Thompson 1, D. E. Brown 3, P. H. Bechefsky 2, C. Iacobacci 3, B. Richards 4, L. R. Hochberg 4, D. B. Rubin 4, Z. M. Williams 4, D. M. Brandman 3, S. D. Stavisky 3, N. AuYong 2, C. Pandarinath 2, S. Druckmann 1, J. M. Henderson 1, F. R. Willett 1
1 Stanford University, USA
2 Emory University and Georgia Institute of Tech. USA
3 UC Davis, USA
4 Brown University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Providence VA Medical Center, USA
*equal contribution
An inner speech neuroprosthesis
Inner speech—purely imagined words—produces reliable motor cortex signals. An intracortical BCI decoded self-paced imagined sentences with low error rates (14% for 50 words, 26% for 125,000 words) at conversational speeds (145 wpm), faster than attempted speech (59–97 wpm). Even spontaneous inner speech, like counting, was detectable, and software safeguards prevent unintended decoding of private thoughts.
This team won the 1st place of the BCI Award 2025. Learn more: bci-award.com/2025
E. M. Kunz 1*, B. Abramovich Krasa 1*, K. Hussain 1*, F. Kamdar 1, D. Avansino 1, N. Hahn 1, S. Yoon 1, A. Singh 1, S. R. Nason-Tomaszewski 2, N. S. Card 3, J. J. Jude 4, B. Jacques 2, M. Rigotti-Thompson 1, D. E. Brown 3, P. H. Bechefsky 2, C. Iacobacci 3, B. Richards 4, L. R. Hochberg 4, D. B. Rubin 4, Z. M. Williams 4, D. M. Brandman 3, S. D. Stavisky 3, N. AuYong 2, C. Pandarinath 2, S. Druckmann 1, J. M. Henderson 1, F. R. Willett 1
1 Stanford University, USA
2 Emory University and Georgia Institute of Tech. USA
3 UC Davis, USA
4 Brown University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Providence VA Medical Center, USA
*equal contribution
