Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide a non-muscular communication channel for patients with latestage motoneuron disease (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)) or otherwise motor impaired people. Unfortunately, about a third of the potential users of BCIs are unable to use these systems with sufficient accuracy. Particularly worrisome, this number increases with the degree of impairment of the users. Thus, it is important to (1) develop new methods and BCI paradigms to increase accuracy, (2) determine possible causes for a lack of aptitude and (3) ensure that BCI applications have minimized complexity. In this talk novel auditory BCI paradigms and BCI applications that address these issues will be presented and possible approaches for the further development of communication methods for completely paralysed users discussed. [mehr]