A cursor on a computer screen can be controlled using thoughts about a range of vowel sounds, research has found.

Brain signals have been translated into motion or even pictures before, but the current research showcases a nascent technique called electrocorticography.

The approach uses sensors placed directly on the surface of the brain.

The authors of the Journal of Neural Engineering paper say the technique will lead to better “brain-computer interfaces” for the disabled.

A great many studies and demonstrations have in recent years made use of the electroencephalograph, or EEG, typically worn as a “cap” studded with electrodes that pick up the electric fields produced by firing neurons.

The technique has been shown to guide electric wheelchairs or even toys, based only on the wearer’s intention.

Sound idea

However, EEGs lose a great deal of the precious information that is available closer to the brain itself, what lead author of the study Eric Leuthardt, of Washington University in St Louis, in the US, calls the “gold standard” brain signal.

“You cannot get the spatial or the signal resolution,” he told BBC News.

“One of the key features in signal resolution is seeing the higher frequencies of brain activity – those higher frequencies have a substantial capability of giving us better insights into cognitive intentions, and part of the reason EEG suffers for this is it acts as a filter of all of these high frequency signals.”

That is, the EEG picks up signals outside the skull, which acts to absorb and muddle the signals.

Electrocorticography, by contrast, is so named because it taps directly into the brain’s cortex – the outermost layer of the brain.

In a surgical procedure, a plastic pad containing a number of electrodes is implanted under the skull.

Its power has already been shown off in allowing video game play by thought alone – but in the new study, the researchers have tapped into the speech network of the brain.

Prior studies have made use of the motor control signals in the brain: the thought or will to move in a particular direction.

But Dr Leuthardt said that the units of speech known as phonemes allow signals of a particular “discrete” nature, rather than signals that range in intensity, as with thoughts of motion.

“(It’s) for the same reason that you don’t type a paper with a mouse – you have a keyboard with a number of discrete commands,” he explained.

“We would want to facilitate somebody’s abilty to communicate by having different phonemes – or essentially key presses – that could allow them to have discrete type of control.”

Four patients who were already undergoing the electrocorticograph implantation – to establish the source of incurable epileptic seizures – participated in the latest study.

They were asked to think of four different phonemes – “oo”, “ah”, “ee” and “eh” – and their brain signals were recorded. Those higher-frequency signals were shown to reliably move a cursor on a computer screen.

“Do we need that gold standard to get this simple level of control? I think the likely answer is yes,” Dr Leuthardt explained.

“For a brain-computer interface, especially for someone who is severly impaired, they need something that is absolutely, completely reliable. If you think of EEG (systems), they move, they’re susceptible to noise, and the likelihood for reliablity is much lower.”

Just a few discrete but reliable signals – tantamount to being able to move a cursor in two dimensions and effect a “click” – could lead to a vast number of applications, he continued.

“What is one of the most prolific ‘2D-plus-click’ devices we have today? It’s an Iphone. Once you have 2D plus click… there’s innumerable different types of functionality you can create on an application base – but what you first need is the control.”

The study also showed that the large-area arrays utilised for the epilepsy research would not be necessary for future electrocorticography implants; an area just 4mm by 4mm can provide the same level of information.

This seems like progress to me.

A revolutionary exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to stand and walk up stairs has gone on show in the UK.

The pioneering bionic device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company.

He said the RoboCop-style suit would be an ideal device for injured British soldiers.

The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries.

The user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band – stand, sit, walk, descend or climb – and then leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion.

The technology has already been put into use in a specialist spinal injuries unit in Italy, following extensive testing. A consumer version should be on the way later in the year, allowing people to use the system in their own homes.

The suit is on display at the NEC in Birmingham.

Cyclone Technologies is to introduce the system to the UK. It’s managing director, Dave Hawkins said: ‘For a paraplegic like myself it means everything.

‘It means I can look my kids in the eye stood up, of means I can give my girlfriend a cuddle. It means you can do normal things like going to a gig and standing up to watch.

‘We are marketing it towards the military. It would be fantastic for people returning injured from Afghanistan to find they’re not stuck as a paraplegic.

‘Towards the end of this year we shall have a personal model that will be tailored to match an individual’s physical capability, following medical assessment and training in a rehabilitation centre.’

The system will be available for £50,000 to personal users by the start of 2012.

According to Mr Hawkins, he has already potential users expressing interest, including the British Armed Forces.

Radi Kaiof is an Israeli who is trained to use the device. He lost the use of his legs while serving in the Israeli army.

‘For me it is amazing, the freedom, to be told I can walk after I thought I could never walk again is brilliant,’ he said.

‘I have been using it for two years now, it has changed my life, I can live normally again.’

It only took five two-hour sessions for Radi to be completely trained on the system.

Rather than forcing the user into motion the system gives them complete control of the device. From a wrist watch Radi selects what he wants to do, stand, sit, walk, ascend, and then uses his body movement to control.

After choosing to walk all he needs to do is lean forward and off he goes. Stopping is a simple matter of stopping leaning forward.

There are several medical benefits to using the device.

‘Being sat down all the time creates loads of problems,’ said Mr Hawking.

‘It crushes your internal organs, being able to stand means life is much more comfortable.

‘Being sat down when you want to stand causes horrible mental anguish as well. It causes depression and suicides have become far too common.

‘Just the feeling if standing helps you live immeasurably.’

A part of the eye that is essential for vision has been created in the laboratory from animal stem cells, offering hope to the blind and partially sighted.

One day it might be possible to make an eye in a dish, Nature journal reports.

The Japanese team used mouse stem cells – immature cells that have the ability to turn into many types of body tissue.

With the right mix of nutrients, the cells changed and began to grow to make a synthetic retina.

Ultimately, scientists hope they can use this approach to make endless supplies of retinal cells or indeed whole retinas that can be transplanted into patients with visual impairment.

Eventually, it may even be possible to create a whole eye.

A US biotech company has already been granted a license to begin human trials of a stem cell treatment for blindness.

‘Landmark discovery’

The retina is the name given to a diverse group of cells that line the inside of the back of eye.

Rays of light enter the eye and are focused onto the retina which produces a picture that is then is sent along the optic nerve for the brain to interpret.

The eye and the brain together produce the images that we see.

Retinal diseases can cause severe vision loss or blindness if left untreated.

Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the most common causes of blindness in old age, and involve the gradual and normally irreversible destruction of retinal cells.

In the Japanese study, the cultured stem cells spontaneously organised themselves into a complex structure that resembled the developing embryonic eye.

The three-dimensional, layered structure was reminiscent of the optic cup, a two-walled pouch-like structure, which ultimately develops into the inner and outer layers of the retina.

The scientists said they were surprised at how well the cells organised themselves with little intervention from them.

They said: “Self-formation of fully stratified 3D neural retina tissues heralds the next generation of generative medicine in retinal degeneration therapeutics, and opens up new avenues for the transplantation of artificial retinal tissue sheets, rather than simple cell grafting.”

Professor James Bainbridge of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Generation of a synthetic retina from embryonic stem cells is a landmark discovery that will help enormously our understanding of blinding eye disease.

“It is particularly exciting that this could also provide a source of cells for transplantation.”

Barbara McLaughlan of the RNIB charity said: “This piece of research contributes to the ongoing efforts to harness stem cell research to benefit patients with a number of eye diseases.

“We welcome these efforts particularly where they move from early laboratory research in mice to trials in humans that are an essential part of developing safe and effective treatments.”

On the way to meet Marini McNeilly, who has made medical history by composing music through the power of thought alone, one question preoccupied me: how would I greet her?

The 57-year-old former language teacher is paralysed after a massive stroke two years ago, so I could not shake her hand. She is unable to speak so I could not expect any verbal response. What would it mean to interview someone with locked-in syndrome – where the brain is functioning and the person is conscious, but unable to communicate?

In the end, talking to her was simple – and humbling. A few hours with someone like Marini shows you the true value of language, music and laughter. When words are hard to find, economy – of thought and expression – are key.

Her contribution to medical progress has come through a prototype computer system which enabled her to conduct an orchestra by moving her eyes.

Four months after her stroke in December 2008, she was admitted to London’s Royal Hospital for Neurodisability (RHN) and helped researchers in experiments with musical composition. She was the first patient with locked-in syndrome to trial a brain-computer music system, designed to allow patients to open up another avenue of communication with the world.

At her care home in Sussex, I asked if she would tell me a joke. Jokes are a crucial element in the rehabilitation of people who have suffered a catastrophic loss of communication – providing a linguistic exercise and also lightening the tone. Alan, her husband since 1972, who visits her every day, grabbed the perspex colour-coded letter board she uses to communicate, and by following her eye movements wrote her response: “How does a dog go when you set fire to it? Woof.”

He said: “In the early days she didn’t laugh or cry – she was either in pain or there was nothing… Now sometimes she lifts the whole dining room here with her shrieks – but she laughs at the most inappropriate things.”

From the earliest days Marini had music therapy – exploring sound to convey feelings and evoke memories. She loved the sound of wind chimes but wanted more. It came in the form of the computer system developed by scientists at Essex and Plymouth universities. Marini was already using a system called Eyegaze, where an infra-red camera set in the computer screen follows her eye movements, allowing her to operate an onscreen keyboard spelling out messages which are then spoken by a disembodied voice.

For the music making, she wore a cap lined with electrodes sensitive enough to detect patterns in her brain waves, which altered according to what she saw on screen. By focusing on different icons she could select strings or bass and by varying the intensity of her gaze she could cause the music to swell or diminish. Within two hours she was the “paralysed woman able to conduct an orchestra”, as one headline put it.

The computer programme was tricky to operate by eye movement alone but Marini, the first locked-in patient to try it, triumphed. Wendy Magee, music therapist and researcher at RHN, said: “We had all struggled with it, but because Marini had experience with Eyegaze she was far more adept. She very quickly got used to it.”

The system is still under development, but Dr Magee has no doubt about its potential. I asked Marini what she had got from the experience. “Freedom and control,” she said.

Did she ever feel life was not worth living? She spelt out her reply: “You don’t want to d-i-s-appoint people. They give you h-o-p-e.”

Did she ever feel, as is sometimes said of people with locked-in syndrome, that she was buried alive?

“Communication is key,” she replied, before adding: “We have a saying in Spain: God squeezes but he doesn’t choke.”

People with autism use their brains differently from other people, which may explain why some have extraordinary abilities to remember and draw objects in detail, according to new research.

University of Montreal scientists say in autistic people, the brain areas that deal with visual information are highly developed.

Other brain areas are less active.

The National Autistic Society says the findings significantly increase understanding of the condition.

The research, published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, pulls together 15 years of data on the way the autistic brain works.

Better at visual tasks

It suggests that the brains of autistic people are organised differently from those of other people; the area at the back of the brain, which processes visual information, is more highly developed.

That leaves less brain capacity in areas which deal with decision-making and planning.

That may be why people with autism can be better than others at carrying out some types of visual tasks.

For example, some are able to draw highly accurate and detailed images from memory.

However, they can find it difficult to interpret things like facial expressions.

The condition varies in severity, with some people functioning well, but others completely unable to take part in normal society.

The researchers believe their findings may lead towards new ways of helping people to live with the condition.

“For example, this may show a means to help people to literacy in a much more natural way than the usual methods of helping autistic people,” said Dr Laurent Mottron from the University of Montreal.

“The natural tendency is to think that autism is a form of disorganisation. Here, what we see is that it is a reorganisation of the brain,” he said.

Understanding autism

Autism experts regard the research findings as significant.

“This review highlights that autism should not only be seen as a condition with behavioural difficulties, but should also be associated with particular skill,” said Dr Christine Ecker from the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, London.

“It offers us unique insights into the way people with autism perceive their environment and helps us to understand some of their behaviour.”

She said it added to the understanding of autism. “Knowing the strengths and difficulties of someone with autism may help to better understand their needs and help them maximize their potential.”

Carol Povey of the National Autistic Society said: “This study is interesting as it begins to demonstrate why people with autism often show a strong single channel for focus and attention.

“Some adults with autism develop their own ways of coping with this experience, some seek out calm and quiet places, whilst others find creative outlets, like art, can help them both process the information as well as give others an insight into how they see the world.

“The more insight we have into the way autism affects sensory processing, the more people with autism, their families and professionals can develop strategies to make daily life easier.”

During matches at the sparkling Pallekele Stadium in Sri Lanka, Sania Zaidi sits at the front of the big, glass-fronted press box.

At a press conference with Sri Lanka’s vice-captain, Mahela Jayawardena, she raises her hand to ask if the team will be using three spin bowlers in its attack.

She is just the same as any other journalist – only Ms Zaidi, flanked by her husband, has been blind since childhood.

She is now 28 and a university lecturer in her home town of Multan in Pakistan, teaching mass communications. But she is also a keen cricket reporter, describing journalism as a hobby.

‘Not accepted’

Ms Zaidi is one of the hundreds of journalists who have been covering the current Cricket World Cup in the subcontinent – and one with a particularly fascinating story to tell.

Her cricket reporting started in 2004 when she interviewed the star Sri Lankan player Sanath Jayasuriya – then playing a series in Lahore – as part of a university assignment.

“He is a thorough gentleman,” she told the BBC.

“He gave me five minutes and I did the recording. That was very remarkable in my life.”

She says she likes Sri Lanka and the national team’s attitude which encouraged her to take a deeper interest in the game.

But her passion for sport began at high school, when she opted to study physical education.

“No one accepted a blind girl as doing such type of subject,” she says.

“But I took it as a challenge and doing all the practicals like javelin throwing, discus throwing and everything.”

‘Punishment from God’

Now she provides interviews to three daily papers, sometimes for radio and TV – and for this World Cup – a monthly magazine, Pakistan Special.

Her interviewees range from India’s cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar to the Pakistani squash giant Jahangir Khan.

Ms Zaidi lost her sight in early childhood and says it is a blessing of God that she does not remember being sighted.

Her mother used to record textbooks into a cassette recorder but school exams were difficult as she herself had to dictate answers.

Her parents, brother and sister have been highly supportive in helping her appreciate the game and the players.

“They made a plastic World Cup or a paper World Cup to show me how it looked like. They made me touch and feel how it is. And also if I talk about [Sanath] Jayasuriya – my brother told me about his face, about everything, so I feel like I can see.”

Ms Zaidi follows matches through radio, television and online commentaries, and has audio software to help her as a blind person with computing. The rise of IT has helped her in immeasurable ways.

But asked what it is like to be blind in Multan, she replies emphatically “very very bad”.

“Sometimes people even say that being blind must be a punishment from God. There are no braille facilities in the city or CDs in the public library.”

Her husband of one year, Khawaja Muhammad, travelled to Sri Lanka with her. But despite sitting through the matches with his wife he jokes that he has no interest in cricket.

“I am a librarian by profession so I am interested in study and also in library books,” he says, smiling broadly.

Ms Zaidi jokes that she has so far failed to interest him in the sport, although she is working on it.

Before heading back to Pakistan they were spending their first wedding anniversary in Thailand – but she would rather cover the rest of the World Cup, she admits mischievously.

Out on the turf during a practice session, she gets the fast bowler Lasith Malinga’s autograph for her brother.

He is as big a cricket fan as she is, Sania says.

A young boy who was told last year that he would never walk again has joined his local football team.

Six-year-old Ben Baddeley suffers from Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy but thanks to a trike bought for him through funds raised by his local pub, the muscles in his legs have strengthened so much that he no longer needs a wheelchair.

On Saturday he’ll be a special guest at Macclesfield FC and his parents Amy and Gary told BBC Radio 5 live’s Gabby Logan about his progress.

Schools in England need new teaching methods to deal with an influx of children with increasingly complex special needs, a report warns.

The study says more disabled children are surviving to school age, and new conditions, such as foetal alcohol syndrome, bring a range of needs.

The report by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust says schools need new training in special needs.

One in five pupils in England is said to have some form of special needs.

This equates to around 1.7 million children.

‘Never seen before’

The Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project, funded by the Department for Education, says urgent action is needed to help schools serve a new generation of children with special needs and disabilities “never seen before in the education system”.

These include foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, attachment disorder, rare chromosomal disorders, some mental health problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, sensory impairment, autism, fragile X syndrome, the long-term effects of drug use during pregnancy and the long-term effects of premature birth.

The researchers have also developed a set of briefing and guidance notes, with advice for teachers in handling pupils with complex special needs.

The study says there have been rapid increases in the number of children with the most complex special needs.

It says research shows the number of children with disabilities in Britain has risen from 700,000 in 2004 to 950,000 in 2009.

Department for Education figures show that over the same period the number of children with profound multiple learning difficulties increased by nearly 30%.

New challenges

Chief author of the report and SSAT associate director Professor Barry Carpenter said: “Rare disabilities and other conditions are on the increase.

“There are also more and more children coming into the system with mental health problems.

“This is not just an issue for special schools – teachers in mainstream schools need to be aware of these trends because they are increasingly likely to encounter children with problems they have not seen before.

“We need urgent action to alert teachers across the system to this fast-growing trend and prepare them for it. Without proper training teachers will struggle to cope with these new challenges and children will not get the support they need.”

Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said the findings of the research had fed into the recent Green Paper on special educational needs.

The research offered “valuable insight into the new generation of children with complex learning difficulties and disabilities”, she said, urging schools to download the guidance offered.

A new hearing aid that transmits sound through a person’s teeth has been approved for use in Europe.

The device, called SoundBite, directs sound through the jawbone and into the inner ear.

It is placed onto the upper left or right molars and is custom-made for each patient.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) warned that it may not be suitable for everyone with hearing problems.

Bone conduction

While conventional hearing aids use air conduction to increase the volume of sound travelling through the air, SoundBite uses a different approach – bone conduction.

First, a network of mini microphones placed behind the impaired ear pick up the sound in the environment and cancel out the noise.

The sound is transmitted wirelessly to the prosthetic in the mouth.

The device sends the vibrations through the teeth and bones directly to the cochlea – the auditory part of the inner ear – bypassing the middle and outer ear.

This way it can help those who are deaf in one ear to hear in stereo.

The company that makes the system, Sonitus Medical, said that the mechanism is the first ever non-surgical device to use bone conduction.

UK reception

There are around nine million deaf or partially deaf people in the UK alone.

According to the RNID, only six million of them require a hearing aid – and out of those six million, only about two million actually wear one.

Many do not like the look of it, and there are those who find it difficult to convince their GP to prescribe one, said Angela King, RNID senior audiology adviser.

And there are no guarantees that the new device will enjoy a warm reception in the UK, she added.

“Just by looking at it, you can’t imagine it being very comfortable.

“Also, if they do not like conventional hearing aids, they are not going to like this either because it involves wearing something behind the ear as well,” said Ms King.

Scientists have shown how a single protein may trigger autistic spectrum disorders by stopping effective communication between brain cells.

The team from Duke University in North Carolina created autistic mice by mutating the gene which controls production of the protein, Shank3.

The animals exhibited social problems, and repetitive behaviour – both classic signs of autism and related conditions.

The Nature study raises hopes of the first effective drug treatments.

Autism is a disorder which, to varying degrees, affects the ability of children and adults to communicate and interact socially.

While hundreds of genes linked to the condition have been found, the precise combination of genetics, biochemistry and other environmental factors which produce autism is still unclear.

Each patient has only one or a handful of those mutations, making it difficult to develop drugs to treat the disorder.

Shank3 is found in the synapses – the junctions between brain cells (neurons) that allow them to communicate with each other.

The researchers created mice which had a mutated form of Shank3, and found that these animals avoided social interactions with other mice.

They also engaged in repetitious and self-injurious grooming behaviour.

Brain circuits

When the MIT team analysed the animals’ brains they found defects in the circuits that connect two different areas of the brain, the cortex and the striatum.

Healthy connections between these areas are thought to be key to effective regulation of social behaviours and social interaction.

The researchers say their work underscores just what an important role Shank3 plays in the establishment of circuits in the brain which underlie all our behaviours.

Lead researcher Dr Guoping Feng said: “Our study demonstrated that Shank3 mutation in mice lead to defects in neuron-neuron communications.

“These findings and the mouse model now allow us to figure out the precise neural circuit defects responsible for these abnormal behaviours, which could lead to novel strategies and targets for developing treatment.”

It is thought that only a small percentage of people with autism have mutations in Shank3, but Dr Feng believes many other cases may be linked to disruptions to other proteins that control synaptic function.

If true he believes it should be possible to develop treatments that restore synaptic function, regardless of which protein is defective in a specific individual.

Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, said: “Animal research can help advance our understanding or the role of genetics and their influence on behaviour, however it is only a small part of the picture when it comes to understanding autism.

“Human brains are far more complex than those of other mammals, and it is believed that a variety of factors are responsible for the development of the condition.”