ALS Patient Uses Brain Implant To Communicate Request For Tool Album To Be Played

Aniol, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Science is an incredible gift that can bring tremendous wonders into our lives, like being able to use a brain implant to listen to a Tool album super loudly.

In a new feature written up by Science.org, a 36-year-old man suffering with ALS started working with a research team back in 2018 when he still had the ability to move his eyes. ALS is a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function.

The feature refers to a new brain implant for ALS patients and that has been shown to allow the ability to read brain signals, even within a “locked in” state.

The man was given this implant, with two square electrode arrays implanted into his brain. He was able to use these implants to communicate with the team via certain pitches that indicated a “yes” and “no” to groups of letters, as well as individual letters.

Among the messages the patient provided to the team, he communicated, “I love my cool son,” “Goulash soup and sweet pea soup,” and “I would like to listen to the album by Tool loud.” The article goes on to say that the man was able to adjust the tone by moving his eyes, but this was not always successful.

Even with some of those technical hiccups, this is still wildly impressive technology! Technology like this would be wonderful for more ALS patients to have access too. If you are curious to read the full feature yourself, you can find that via this link here.

We wonder what Tool album the man asked to listen to?

What is your favorite Tool album? The band recently released a special edition release called Opiate2, which also features the band’s first new music video in 15 years. If you want to check out a clip of the Opiate2 music video, you can find that by clicking this link here. Tool drummer Danny Carey also recently said that fans would not have to wait super long to hear new music from the band.