Scientists at Columbia University have developed a brain-controlled hearing technology that allows users to amplify the conversation they are focusing on while reducing other voices. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, this study marks the first time this kind of technology has been tested in humans.
“We have developed a system that acts as a neural extension of the user, leveraging the brain’s natural ability to filter through all the sounds in a complex environment to dynamically isolate the specific conversation they wish to hear,” said Nima Mesgarani, PhD, principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. “This science empowers us to think beyond traditional hearing aids, which simply amplify sound, toward a future where technology can restore the sophisticated, selective hearing of the human brain.”
While modern hearing aids can amplify human speech while suppressing background noise, they cannot separate and enhance specific voices when multiple people are speaking. This can make it difficult for users to concentrate on a specific conversation in everyday scenarios such as restaurants, classrooms, busy workplaces, and family gatherings.
The hearing device developed by Mesgarani’s team mimics the way the human brain can naturally identify and focus on a single speaker out of many within a crowd. Previously, the researchers had found a way of identifying which brain signals are linked to a specific conversation, by matching the timing of peaks and valleys of the brain waves to the sounds and silences of that conversation. They also identified distinct patterns of brain activity that indicate which conversation a person is focusing on and which one they are filtering out.
In the current study, the scientists developed a machine learning algorithm that could examine the user’s brainwaves and identify which conversation they are paying attention to in real time, making that voice louder and others quieter to make it easier to listen to. This system was tested on epilepsy patients who already had electrodes implanted in their brains. The electrodes were used to measure the user’s brain activity as they focused on two overlapping conversations played simultaneously, and the algorithm automatically detected which conversation they were trying to focus on.
“The results mark an important step toward a new generation of brain-controlled hearing technologies that align with the listener’s intent, potentially transforming how people navigate noisy, multi-talker environments,” said Vishal Choudhari, PhD, who led the development and evaluation of the system.
More research will be needed before minimally invasive wearable systems can integrate this kind of brain sensing technology with advanced audio processing capabilities, especially to ensure they can accurately decode conversations in real time and in real-world scenarios where multiple voices can be heard.
“The central unanswered question was whether brain-controlled hearing technology could move beyond incremental advances, towards a prototype that could help someone hear better in real time,” said Choudhari. “For the first time, we have shown that such a system that reads brain signals to selectively enhance conversations can provide a clear real-time benefit. This moves brain-controlled hearing from theory toward practical application.”
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