Edward Chang: Breaking the Wall of Speech Loss | Falling Walls Science Summit 2022

Each year, thousands of people lose the ability to speak due to strokes, accidents, or disease. While there have been various attempts to restore speech to humans, science still has a long way to go. Edward Chang is a leading neurosurgeon and Weill Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of California. A specialist in advanced brain mapping of language, Chang and his laboratory have demonstrated the detailed functional blueprint of the human speech cortex, and have translated those discoveries towards the development of a "speech neuroprosthesis" – a high-density electrode array implanted directly on the surface of the brain to record electrical activity. At Falling Walls, Chang shows how this device has enabled a man with severe paralysis to communicate in sentences, translating signals from his brain directly into words that appear as text on a screen. This is the first successful demonstration of direct decoding of full words from the brain activity of someone who is paralyzed.

Speaker:
Edward Chang – https://falling-walls.com/people/edwa...
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About the Falling Walls Science Summit

Three days of intense scientific discussions, networking, and knowledge sharing in the incredible cosmopolitan city of Berlin!

The Falling Walls Science Summit is a leading international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral forum for scientific breakthroughs and science dialogue between global science leaders and society. The event takes place every year from 7–9 November in Berlin, commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. With formats Falling Walls Pitches (7 November), Falling Walls Circle (8 November) and Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year (9 November), the Falling Walls Science Summit is the leading forum for global science leaders from academia, business, politics, the media, and civil society to debate the potential of scientific breakthroughs to solve grand challenges and shape a sustainable future. The Falling Walls Science Summit is organised by the non-profit Falling Walls Foundation.

Falling Walls Foundation: https://falling-walls.com/
Newsletter: https://falling-walls.com/newsletter/

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FALLING WALLS
SCIENCE SUMMIT
7 – 9 NOV 2023