The moment Casey Harrell heard his voice again in 2023 was an instant 50 years in the making.

Struggling with paralysis caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Harrell feared he would never communicate with his daughter again until research pioneered by California universities gave his voice back. When he spoke using a revolutionary brain-computer interface developed at the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab , his own voice — once stolen by disease — brought Casey, his family and researchers to tears of joy.

The breakthrough technology instantly decodes brain signals, transforming intent to speak into Casey’s digitized voice, but the effort was anything but instantaneous. It was the culmination of decades of painstaking work in American research university labs — a relentless pursu

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