Communication with locked-in patients in question after misconduct finding

Enlarge / A female study participant allegedly responds to a question. (credit: Wyss Center )

Germany's main research-funding organization, DFG, has determined that a high-profile neuroscientist committed scientific misconduct in his DFG-funded work. That work concluded it is possible to interpret yes-or-no answers from the brain waves of fully paralyzed patients with "locked-in syndrome" due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's disease).

The 2013-2014 work was published in 2017 in PLOS Biology and covered by Ars. The researchers subsequently published a response to criticism of the work in 2019 in PLOS Biology, which was also included in the DFG's misconduct investigation.

In a statement, the DFG said that it determined that German neuroscientist Niels Birbaumer, the coordinating researcher on the work, and first-author Ujwal Chaudhary, a member of Birbaumer's team, included incorrect information in three cases, did not completely record patient examinations by video as they reported, and failed to provide full data on patients.

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