How to make music with your thoughts
Many patients who played music prior to suffering a stroke or other motor impairments usually cannot play an instrument or sing afterwards due to disability and lack of movement.
A Swedish neurologist, Thomas Duel, created a hands-free musical instrument called the Encephalophone, which is controlled by the patient’s thoughts and does not require any movement.
This novel musical instrument and biofeedback device was created using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, which has been used to measure the electrical patterns of the human brain, since early history. Scientists have been making efforts to convert these signals into sounds since the 1930’s and into music since the 1960’s.
But these methods were difficult to control and not accessible to those who were not trained.
The Encephalophone can be controlled through two types of brain signals: those associated with the visual cortex (closing one’s eyes), or those related with thinking about movement.
This initial study showed that for this small group of novice musicians, control by eye closing was more accurate than control through imagining movements.
It collects brain signals through a cap that transforms specific signals into musical notes. It also has a synthesizer which allows the user to create music by using variety of musical sounds.
This instrument was tested on 15 healthy adults, without prior training, through experiments which tested accuracy in hitting a target note and the results showed that the adults were able to use the Encephalophone to correctly recreate the notes, higher than random note generation with 67.1 per cent accuracy for visual cortex/PDR (posterior dominant rhythm – type of emitted brain wave) signalling and 57.1 per cent accuracy for mu (type of emitted brain wave) signalling.
This initial study showed that for this small group of novice musicians, control by eye closing was more accurate than control through imagining movements.
Control by thinking would be most useful for disable patients and the neurologist plans to continue his investigation into this.
This amazing invention has the ability to generate music with that portion of the brain which cannot control motor movement of the limbs. It shows great potential in rehabilitating patients with motor disabilities such as those who suffered from stroke, spinal cord injury, amputation, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The neurologists believe that the Encephalophone can be combined with physical therapy to improve motor rehabilitation, and may help in rewiring damaged circuits and allow new motor output pathways to regain some motor control.
Our thoughts are powerful and can have an impact on our health and wellbeing but now the power of thought can be harnessed with this musical invention to rehabilitate and empower patients and give them the ability to regain their confidence and enjoy making music again.
Source: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
