Decoding Speech from EEG Recordings

Imagine a world where we can hear what you're thinking ...

For speech paralysis patients, communication is a large hurdle in their lives. If we can figure out what they are thinking, we can provide a novel mode of communication that dramatically improves their quality of life!

Speech paralysis is more common than you think!

• Wide variety of causes: stroke, nerve injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, etc.

• 30% to 60% of stroke patients develop speech impediments

To work towards a solution for decoding inner speech, this project focuses on heard speech. The functional pathways involved in inner and heard speech overlap significantly, suggesting that developments in heard speech may translate into inner speech.

Problem Statement

Currently, the field of EEG speech analysis faces the challenges of high levels of noise in EEG data, difficulty in isolation of the signal solely relating to speech processing, a lack of clarity for the most relevant EEG features within a signal, and a rudimentary understanding of the brain regions involved in auditory processing. 

Credit: Sangjoon An