Overview
- A Nature Medicine paper published Monday, June 15, 2026 reports that a participant in the BrainGate2 trial used an intracortical brain–computer interface at home nearly every day for almost two years without researchers present.
- Surgeons implanted four microelectrode arrays (256 electrodes total) into the participant’s speech motor cortex in July 2023 and the system decodes attempted speech into text, offers cursor control, and plays back a synthesized version of his pre-diagnosis voice.
- Across roughly 3,800 hours of home use the participant produced about 183,000 sentences and nearly 2 million words at an average speed of 56 words per minute, with controlled tests showing over 99% word accuracy and the user rating 92% of sentences as mostly correct.
- The team added practical, user-facing features such as caregiver-assisted plug-in routines, a privacy mode that can delete decoded text, a profanity filter, and ongoing software updates that let the participant send messages, browse the web and keep working.
- The device remains investigational in the BrainGate2 trial and researchers warn these results come from a single ‘power user,’ so longer follow-up, more participants and durability data are needed before wider clinical use can be judged.