New technology allows brain-damaged musicians to play again

New mind-reading cutting edge British technology has allowed a brain damaged violinist to make music for first time in 27 years – and four affected musicians to perform at a jazz festival this month, using the power of their minds. 

Despite being unable to move themselves, they can “control” other musicians to play for them.

The Brain Computer Music Interfacing software hooks up a disabled musician to a computer via an EEG cap. It is fitted with electrodes which read electrical information from their brain.

They are paired with other (non-disabled) musicians. By focussing on different coloured lights on a computer screen, they can instruct the other musicians to select notes and phrases to be played and alter a composition in real time. The intensity of their mental focus can even change the volume and speed of the piece.

The technology was successfully trialled on 50-year-old Rosemary Johnson. The one-time member of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra was left with massive head injuries in a car accident in 1988, which left her in a coma for seven months. Her speech and movement were seriously affected. She could only pick out a few chords on the piano in hospital with the help of her mother Mary.

The trial saw her once again create music with members of a local string quartet.

Image Source: Plymouth University

The technology was developed over ten years at the University of Plymouth and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London. 

Professor Eduardo Miranda, composer and Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University told a newspaper, ““It was really very moving. The first time we tried with Rosemary we were in tears. We could feel the joy coming from her at being able to make music.

“The great achievement of this project is that it is possible to perform music without being able to actually move. She is essentially controlling another musician to play it for her. It’s not yet possible to read thoughts but we can train people to use brain signals to control things.”

It is hoped that the technology will in time allow patients with limited movement to express themselves musically on how they are feeling.

Johnson, and three other severely motor-impaired musicians will utilise Brain Computer Music with the Bergersen String quartet to perform at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, staged February 26 to 28. They will unveil a new Eduardo Miranda piece called Activating Memory which they have recorded.

Their performance is part of the festival’s 2016 theme of “Frontiers”. It will showcase extraordinary new technologies and approaches to composition and performance that are pushing the boundaries of music and promoting widening participation in the art of creating music