Mind over mouth? Study could lead to communicating via thoughts

A team of UC Irvine scientists has been awarded a $4 million grant to study synthetic telepathy – communicating by thoughts instead of speech. Funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, the project could benefit soldiers on the battlefield and paralysis and stroke patients who can’t communicate verbally, according to lead researcher Michael D’Zmura, chair of the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences. The team will work with experts in automatic speech recognition and brain imaging at other universities to research a brain-computer interface that would use noninvasive brain imaging technology to let people communicate thoughts to each other.