Violinist Rosemary Johnson has spent the last 27 years coming to terms with the reality she would never make music again, following a devastating car crash. A member of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra she was destined to become a world class musician before the road accident in 1988, which left her in a coma for seven months.
Miss Johnson suffered a devastating head injury, robbing her of speech and movement and meaning she could only pick out a few chords on the piano with the help of her mother Mary.
Professor Eduardo Miranda, Plymouth University, and supporting staff have devised a software system that interfaces with electrode caps to interpret brain activity, which is then translated into directions for others. This enables disabled subjects to perform those commands and make music that they are directing with their brain waves. “By focusing on different colored lights on a computer screen she can select notes and phrases to be played and alter a composition as it is performed by live musicians. The intensity of her mental focus can even change the volume and speed of the piece.”
“In an extraordinary 10-year project led by the Plymouth University and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London, her brain has been wired up to a computer using Brain Computer Music Interfacing software. It is the first time Miss Johnson, 50, has been able to create music in decades and has been an emotional experience for her and the scientists involved in the program. “It was really very moving,” said Professor Eduardo Miranda, Composer and Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University.”
“The great achievement of this project is that it is possible to perform music without being able to actually move. She is essentially controlling another musician to play it for her. It’s not yet possible to read thoughts, but we can train people to use brain signals to control things.”
Three other disabled patients who live at the hospital have also been trained to use the technology and have been working alongside four able-bodied musicians from the Bergersen String quartet who play the music in real time as it is selected. They are called The Paramusical Ensemble. And, they have already recorded a piece of music entitled Activating Memory, which will be heard for the first time at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth, later this month.
Julian O’Kelly, Research Fellow at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability added: “This is a great means of transcending disability to offer individuals a unique experience of creating music with each other and interacting with skilled musicians to create original compositions. “In the case of Rosemary, the project illustrated the great potential this innovation could have for participants who may have once been gifted musicians, but now lack the physical abilities to engage in music making.
Speaking through an automated voice machine, Mr. Thomas, one of the disabled patients,) said: “I like music and I am very interested in the Brain Computer Music Interface. It’s more interactive with people actually getting my instructions. “It was great to hear the musician play the phrase I selected. I tried to select music that was harmonious with the others. It’s very cool.”
The team is hoping that the technology could be used one day to improve mood and help them to express their feelings. “If our patients were able to compose music to reflect their state of mind, that would be an amazing way for them to be able to express themselves and music therapists could then use that to work with the patients,” added Dr Sophie Duport, of Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability.