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Stanford creates brain implant that decodes thoughts, requires mental password [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2025-08-19

Scientists have created a brain implant that can decode a person's inner thoughts with 74% accuracy, but only after they mentally "speak" a personalized password, with one participant using the phrase "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang."

The Stanford University team, in research published in Cell, developed this brain-computer interface to help people who struggle to speak due to paralysis or limited muscle control. By placing microelectrodes in the motor cortex of four participants, researchers discovered that internal speech produces similar but weaker neural signals compared to attempted spoken speech. The system can reconstruct words from a massive 125,000-word vocabulary in real-time.

Sarah Wandelt, a neural engineer at the Feinstein Institutes who wasn't involved in the study, called it a "technically impressive and meaningful step" toward accurate thought-decoding devices. The system proved its real-world potential when it successfully decoded numbers that participants imagined while counting pink rectangles on a screen. This demonstrated the BCI could detect spontaneous self-talk, not just pre-planned phrases.

The password protection was nearly foolproof, with 98% accuracy in recognizing when users thought their unique activation phrase. Lead researcher Erin Kunz explains their focus on privacy protection: "We wanted to investigate this robustly." The team is now exploring other brain regions to expand the technology's capabilities. "If we look at other parts of the brain, perhaps we can also address more types of speech impairments," says Kunz.

Previously:

• Split brain explainer video: You Are Two

• This startup promises to preserve your brain for uploading, after they kill you

• Brain damage linked to religious fundamentalism, Harvard study finds

• Brain-computer interface successfully translates thought into synthesized speech

• The delicious sizzling noise is your brain on ChatGPT

• Brain.fm uses sound and science to help you focus

• Sleep is a brain-repair mechanism, new study proves

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