Hello Emma, I am so impressed and inspired by your Wolfram Summer School project. I’m the Wolfram food data curator and a registered dietitian/nutritionist. I have worked with patients who have ALS, locked-in syndrome and other debilitating conditions. Their ability to think and reason was completely intact, but they had been robbed of control of their body.

For my patients who had minimal or no ability to communicate, their caregivers would ask me questions like “How often do I feed him?”, “How can I tell if she is hungry?” and “How can I tell if he is full?” Their caregivers felt a heavy burden of responsibility not to overfeed their loved one, which could cause respiratory problems, but equally feared their loved one going hungry.

I am excited to see your work with the BCI and Wolfram Language that will one day give these locked-in patients the ability to communicate when they are hungry or full — and perhaps regain the ability to feed themselves by turning on and off the tube feeding pump using BCI technology.