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TOP: ALIBI PICTURES. BOTTOM: ALAN BERNER/SEATTLE TIMES

Music to

My Brain

❯ 

AS A JAZZ MUSICIAN and

neurologist at Swedish

Medical Center in Seattle,

Thomas Deuel has always

been sensitive to the plight of

performers paralyzed by brain

and spinal injuries. He also

has a lot of experience with

electroencephalography (EEG),

a noninvasive way of measuring

brain activity, which can be

harnessed to control wheelchairs.

Several years ago, he started to

wonder: Could the technology

apply to musical instruments, too?

Thus was born his new

instrument, the encephalophone,

described in April in Frontiers in

Human Neuroscience. It’s the first

device to translate electrical brain

activity directly to a musical scale,

allowing performance without

physical movement.

Patients control the

encephalophone by imagining

their right hand grasping and

releasing; a sensor cap detects

the changing brain patterns,

which alter the frequency of a

continuous tone on a synthesizer

speaker. The sensation is “very

bizarre” at first, but competence

improves with practice, Deuel

says. He’s already planning

for his patients to perform live

alongside ensemble musicians at

the University of Washington.

The encephalophone may have

its greatest impact on physical

therapy, potentially benefiting

even non-performers. “The hope

is that there will be accelerated

recovery of the motor cortex,”

Deuel says. The stimulation of

playing may help stroke patients

regain motor control.

 JONATHON KEATS

After studying musicians’ brain activity

(above), Thomas Deuel (top) created a

new instrument played entirely with the

mind: the encephalophone.