NeuroXess Achieves Milestone in Mandarin-Decoding Brain-Computer Interface, Accelerating Clinical Translation to Benefit Patients

Recently, NeuroXess, in collaboration with Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University and the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, achieved a milestone breakthrough in the field of brain-computer interfaces — their research outcome on "Real-time Decoding of Mandarin and Sentence Synthesis via High-channel-count Implantable Flexible Brain-Computer Interfaces" was officially published in the prestigious international journal *Science Advances*. It was subsequently featured in in-depth articles by *Nature* and *Science*, marking China's entry into the forefront of international research in Mandarin-based brain-computer interfaces and laying the foundation for the global development of tonal language brain-computer interfaces.

Real-time Decoding of Chinese Achieves "From 0 to 1" Breakthrough

As the tonal language with the largest number of speakers globally, Chinese is characterized by monosyllabic words, tonal meaning-bearing, and a high density of homophones with different written forms, making real-time decoding of Chinese a recognized challenge in the brain-computer interface (BCI) field. Previous research primarily focused on alphabetic languages like English. With approximately 8 million patients in China suffering from severe brain diseases such as stroke or ALS and losing their ability to speak, developing a Chinese BCI tailored for Chinese users is both critically important and urgently needed. To address this, the research team achieved targeted breakthroughs by creating a 256-channel high-throughput implantable flexible BCI. The micro-electrocorticography electrodes precisely cover key brain regions to capture neural signals. An innovative real-time neural network decoding algorithm extracts specific frequency bands and ultimately integrates them with a language model to output sentences, forming a neuro-coding and decoding solution adapted to the unique characteristics of the Chinese language.

9-Day Training to Meet Daily Communication Needs

This study selected a tumor epilepsy patient with a lesion in the language area. While helping to locate the epileptic focus and protect the language functional area, a Mandarin decoding clinical trial was conducted. After only 9 days of training, the system performance showed significant advantages: the average accuracy of pure neural decoding for 394 commonly used Mandarin syllables (covering over 98% of total Mandarin syllables, with uncovered ones being rare syllables unfamiliar to the subject) reached 71.2%, the single-syllable decoding delay was only 65 milliseconds, and the real-time Mandarin sentence decoding rate reached 49.6 characters per minute, basically meeting daily communication needs.

Relying on this technology and NeuroXess's self-developed general brain-computer operating system, the subjects have achieved several breakthroughs: driving digital avatars to vocalize, engaging in real-time conversations with large AI models, and even precisely controlling dexterous hands to complete complex movements through brain-electric decoding commands.

China's Solution Fills International Gap

The achievement has garnered significant attention from the international academic community upon its release. The official website of *Science* published a dedicated article reporting on it, in which Matthew Leonard, a neuro-linguistics expert at the University of California, San Francisco, stated: "This advancement opens the door to brain-computer interface applications for a large number of potential patients. There are more tonal languages in the world than non-tonal ones, and this is a major breakthrough in the field of Mandarin speech brain-computer interfaces in recent years." Sergei Stavisky, a brain-computer interface researcher at the University of California, Davis, also affirmed: "There is a significant technological leap from studying healthy subjects' speech to developing medical-grade brain-computer interfaces for individuals with language disorders. Generating Chinese characters 'online' during speech, rather than analyzing neural data afterward, is itself a genuine advancement." Notably, in July this year, the official website of the prestigious international academic journal *Nature* also reported on the research findings, sparking widespread global attention and industry recognition. This achievement not only fills the international gap in real-time decoding of Chinese but also provides, for the first time, a reusable technical paradigm for the development of brain-computer interfaces for tonal languages worldwide, establishing China's leading position in this cutting-edge future industry.

Explore the Standardized Application Path for Language Disorder Treatment

"Results are just the starting point; the ultimate goal is to make technology benefit patients," said Tao Hu, founder and chief scientist of NeuroXess. In the future, the team will deepen the research and development of core technologies, optimize decoding accuracy and response speed, while accelerating clinical transformation. They will also collaborate with medical institutions to explore standardized application pathways for language disorder treatment.

The team also plans to expand the technical application boundaries, explore the deep integration of brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence, and help China advance from a "strong country in brain-computer interface technology" to a "strong country in application."

It is reported that the research benefited from Shanghai's unique innovation ecosystem and diverse investments from the government, hospitals, institutions, etc. The relevant work received strong support from the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI) and was supported by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission's Strategic Frontier Brain-Computer Interface Special Project, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization's High-Quality Industrial Development Special Leading Industry Innovation and Development Project, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Youth Innovation Promotion Association Outstanding Member Project, Fudan University's Artificial Intelligence Special Fund, and the Shanghai Magnolia Pujiang Program.

Original Title: Shanghai Brain-Computer Interface Milestone Breakthrough Draws Industry Attention! NeuroXess: Accelerating Clinical Translation to Benefit Patients