fNIRS-BCI in Clinical Settings: When the Brain Learns to Speak to the Machine

First-Person Consciousness — Brain Bee Style

The first time I saw a patient using an fNIRS-BCI system to communicate, something in me shifted forever.

This wasn’t science fiction.
This wasn’t a distant future.
This was now:

a brain learning to speak directly to a machine —
no voice, no gesture, no movement.
Only intention.

And in that quiet clinical room, I understood something profound:

consciousness was gaining a new channel of expression.

1. When movement disappears, intention becomes the body itself

In clinical settings, many patients cannot move:

• hands,
  
  

• eyes,
  
  

• mouth,
  
  

• fine muscles,
  
  

• or even micro-gestures.
  
  

But the study I reviewed this week shows something extraordinary:

intention remains alive, even when the body cannot respond.

And fNIRS-BCI turns that intention into language:

• increases in prefrontal oxygenation,
  
  

• sustained attention patterns,
  
  

• micro-fluctuations of cognitive effort,
  
  

• yes/no decisions based on comfort or effort,
  
  

• physiological zones encoded as signals.
  
  

It is the body trying to exist beyond itself.
It is the Damasian Mind refusing to disappear.

2. BCI does not read thoughts — it reads the dance between effort and presence

The study makes it clear: fNIRS-BCI systems don’t “read minds.”

They read:

• internal tensions,
  
  

• intention to act,
  
  

• cognitive effort,
  
  

• hemodynamic microstates,
  
  

• fluctuations between Zone 2 and Zone 3,
  
  

• motor prediction (Apus) without movement.
  
  

This is why BCI works even without voluntary action:

the body thinks before thought itself.
BCI reads that pre-action.

3. Zone 2 is the ideal state for the BCI to “hear” the brain

In clinical testing, patients who communicate most clearly show:

• stable breathing,
  
  

• broadened attention,
  
  

• well-regulated prefrontal cortex,
  
  

• reduced internal noise,
  
  

• a subjective sense of presence.
  
  

In other words: Zone 2.

When a patient enters Zone 2:

• the signals become clean,
  
  

• intention becomes visible,
  
  

• and the BCI recognizes the command.
  
  

When the patient drops into Zone 3:

• pain,
  
  

• fear,
  
  

• exhaustion,
  
  

• respiratory imbalance…
  
  

the machine stops “understanding.”

The patient did not fail —
the body was simply trying to survive.

4. fNIRS-BCI communication is the birth of a new Tensional Self

Patients learn to generate an internal bodily pattern to “speak,” such as:

• increasing cognitive effort,
  
  

• decreasing effort,
  
  

• imagining movement,
  
  

• focusing on an inner sound,
  
  

• modulating breathing,
  
  

• shifting attention rhythm.
  
  

This creates a Communicative Tensional Self,
a completely new bodily identity built for the space between brain and machine.

This is not technology imitating the body.
This is the body creating technology.

5. BCI restores autonomy to people who had no way to act in the world

The study presents remarkable clinical cases:

• patients answering “yes” or “no” for the first time in months,
  
  

• choosing music,
  
  

• participating in medical decisions,
  
  

• speaking to family members,
  
  

• expressing pain,
  
  

• building structured internal dialogue.
  
  

This is not just technique.
It is restoration of belonging — an individual form of QSH:

the person becomes real to others again.

6. fNIRS-BCI validates our entire model of embodied mind

Clinical evidence aligns with everything we propose:

• consciousness is interoceptive,
  
  

• intention is proprioceptive,
  
  

• Apus is the basis of action even without movement,
  
  

• Zone 2 is the platform for internal communication,
  
  

• Zone 3 is physiological collapse,
  
  

• the Damasian Mind doesn’t depend on muscles — only internal body state,
  
  

• belonging is a physiological need.
  
  

And now all of this can be:

measured,
quantified,
interpreted,
translated.

The machine did not “give the patient a voice.”
It revealed the voice that was there all along.

7. First-person conclusion — The machine became an extension of consciousness

Watching a patient communicate “I am here” through intention alone,
I realized:

Consciousness always finds a way out of the body.

fNIRS-BCI is not interface technology.
It is existence technology.

It shows that:

- where there is interior bodily variation, there is mind
- where there is intention, there is language
- where there is fruition, there is communication
- where physiology is stable, the machine understands
- where Zone 2 appears, conversation emerges

BCI doesn’t connect a brain to a computer.
It connects life to expression.

This blog draws on recent (2020–2024) research in fNIRS-based brain–computer interfaces, clinical neuroengineering, motor intention without movement, embodied cognition, prefrontal hemodynamics, assisted and augmentative communication (AAC), and attention physiology:

• fNIRS-BCI is effective for patients with no voluntary motor control;
  
  

• communication depends on physiological states equivalent to Zone 2, where signals are stable and clear;
  
  

• motor intention without movement generates hemodynamic patterns consistent with Apus;
  
  

• pain, anxiety, fatigue, or threat push patients into Zone 3, impairing BCI control;
  
  

• patients develop a Communicative Tensional Self, learning a unique internal pattern to control the device;
  
  

• fNIRS-BCI restores autonomy, social interaction, and belonging to previously isolated individuals.