Post by D-Composites

A paralyzed musician is using a brain implant and creating music with his mind Galen Buckwalter, 69, a longtime member of the Los Angeles punk band Siggy, was paralyzed from the chest down after a diving accident at age 16. In 2024, he received six brain implants (Utah arrays from Blackrock Neurotech) in his motor cortex as part of a Caltech brain-computer interface study. What started as a quest to restore movement and sensation has evolved into something extraordinary: Galen is generating musical tones in real time using only his thoughts. Using custom software developed by Caltech graduate student Sean Darcy, neural activity from his brain is translated into pitch, tone, and rhythm. By imagining specific movements, he can control multiple tones: essentially playing music with his mind. These brain-generated sounds have been incorporated into Siggy’s latest album, specifically the title track “Wirehead,” released in March 2026. 📹: Siggy

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