Michigan: A woman living with a progressive motor neuron disease has used her brain activity to generate her own words, answer open-ended questions, and communicate with family through an experimental brain-computer interface, the US neurotechnology company Paradromics announced Monday. The Michigan woman, who is in her 60s, became the first participant to receive the company's Connexus brain-computer interface as part of its Connect-One Early Feasibility Study. According to Anadolu Agency, unlike earlier exercises where participants reproduced sentences selected by researchers, the woman was able to decide what she wanted to say. The system decoded neural activity associated with her intended speech and rendered it as text and synthesized voice in real time. When the free-speech function was activated, her first independently selected sentence was: 'Okay, I have a lot to say.' Paradromics stated that the sentence was decoded exactly as intended, without errors. During the same session, she used the device to speak with her grandchildren on a live telephone call, asking them questions and responding through the system-generated voice. "She determines what she wants to say, and the system enables her to say it," said Paradromics founder and CEO Matt Angle in a statement. The participant has severe dysarthria, a condition that makes speech difficult to understand, but retains a limited ability to speak. Her husband can often understand her, while communicating with other people has become increasingly difficult, according to the company. When University of Michigan Health neurosurgeon Matthew Willsey asked what advice she would give to someone considering the implant and surgery, she responded through the device: "Don't be afraid. It's a wonderful experience to be able to help others by your participation in the research study." Paradromics stated that every word she intended to say was decoded correctly. Willsey described the result as a major milestone in efforts to enable people with conditions affecting spee ch to communicate freely through a fully implanted device. The Connexus system contains 421 microelectrodes that record activity from individual neurons. Signals travel to a small transceiver implanted in the participant's chest before being transmitted wirelessly through intact skin to an external receiver and computer, according to University of Michigan Health. Researchers are studying how the participant's neural activity changes as she listens to language, prepares to speak, attempts to speak, and internally generates language. Paradromics stated it had identified different patterns associated with attempted speech and imagined speech. Attempted speech refers to deliberately trying to produce words, while imagined speech involves generating language internally without attempting the physical movements required to speak. The findings do not indicate that the device can passively read unsolicited thoughts. They concern language the participant deliberately generated during structured research tasks. The woman received the Connexus implant at University of Michigan Health in June. She will be followed for six years as researchers assess the device's long-term safety, durability, and ability to restore communication and enable computer control. The US Food and Drug Administration granted Paradromics an Investigational Device Exemption for the study in November 2025. That authorization permits the experimental device to be studied in humans but does not constitute approval for general or commercial use. The trial is being conducted at the University of Michigan Health, UC Davis Health, and Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. As the result comes from the study's first participant, the findings remain preliminary. Paradromics did not cite a peer-reviewed publication in its announcement, and further participants and longer-term data will be needed to evaluate the system's safety, consistency, and usefulness outside supervised research sessions.