The Headset

First, a doctors update. We now have on the doctor roster a new general physician (the first one we had didn’t work out), a pulmonologist, the wonderful neurologist I’m about to tell you about, and another neurologist who we’ll meet next week.

Quintin had a bit of a fever in early January that persisted long enough for the nurse who manages his foster home to send him to a hospital until the fever resolved. The fever got better within a few days but Quintin stayed at Legacy Salmon Creek for about a week beyond that because we met a neurologist there who took an interest in Q’s case.

It all started because Beverly asked the hospital nurses about the potential for seizures. For months now Q’s had a sort of tremor around his mouth; his lips twitch fairly regularly, almost with his heartbeat, and that’s what Beverly was concerned about. So they did an EEG test at the hospital. No seizure activity is apparent, and it sounds like we’re past the point in the healing process where seizures would be a real concern.

The neurologist who read that EEG has been extremely helpful and hands on since then. He explained potential tests (some simple, others very technical and expensive) we could undertake to find out (as much as is possible) what kind of activity is going on in Q’s brain. After a few simple tests it’s been determined that Quintin can see and hear. Because of that, this neurologist has recommended that we increase the visual and auditory stimulation he receives, and that we try to find a way to help him communicate.

Because Quintin still has the trach he can’t speak, though it is in his routine now to have the “talking valve” on sometimes, to get his throat muscles back in shape in hopes of eventually removing the trach entirely. And while we occasionally see new small movements in his extremities, he does not have normal motor control. So, knowing his brain is active, how do we help him communicate?

Enter “the headset”. Q’s neurologist turned up information on a new device called “Emotiv”, which is a headset that essentially reads your brain waves, like a mini-EEG. Because the pathways in our brains are all different, you first have to train it to recognize how your specific brain lights up when you think “left” for example. Then when the headset sees that pattern again it knows you mean “left.” It’s hard to explain anything more related to the headset until you’ve seen it in action, so if you have 10 minutes you should watch the video of the TED Talk given by the developer, and then read the rest of this post.

Now that you have a visual of the orange cube I can tell you what happened. I wasn’t in the room, but Dale related this story to me shortly after it happened. The first time Dale and the neurologist gave Quintin a shot at the headset he moved the cube with mental commands. Not every time he was asked, but enough to convince Dale, the doctor, and a roomful of nurses who accumulated during the test run that, in the words of one nurse, “my God, he can DO it!” I’m told the tipping point was when the doctor told Quintin to move the cube right twice, and left once, and he did it.

Since that successful first run the headset had trouble holding a charge (I think Q fried it with his powerful brain waves) and the replacement just arrived recently, so I’ve only seen Jedi Quintin in action once. He was pretty sleepy so we didn’t ask him to do too much, but there’s no denying he was moving the cube.

The next step is to get him comfortable and used to the headset enough that we can get a reliable “yes/no” response in some way. Some computer programmer friends are on board to play with the developer version of the headset and it will be exciting to see what comes of that collaboration.

Technology is amazing. Almost as amazing as the human brain.