BrainCom's next generation of brain implants to restore speech in an El País-Vodafone video

BrainCom is a European project working on solutions for patients with impaired communication abilities. ICREA professor and project coordinator Jose A. Garrido spoke to national newspaper El País about the potential of graphene to bring a new level of sophistication to brain-computer interfaces.

Screen capture via Reuters video

BrainCom is a collaborative European research project led from the ICN2 to drive the development of neural interfaces able to decode brain activity at source. It proposes a radical new approach to interpreting signals from the brain based on the use of nanomaterials like graphene. The goal is super slim, flexible implants with the capacity to process data at unprecedented volumes, something which is especially essential to achieving meaningful interaction with the brain's complex speech centres.

In the video below (Spanish only), while recognising that the regulatory and social barriers to use in humans remain high, ICREA Prof. Jose A. Garrido hints that the use of such graphene-based implants in neuroscience, brain research and even awake brain surgery may be as little as five years away.

ICREA Prof. Jose A. Garrido is the leader of the ICN2 Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices Group and project coordinator of BrainCom, a collaborative project funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Source: El País, "Brain-sized graphene chips" (in Spanish)