Since the 1980s, implantable bionic devices have had significant potential in the diagnosis and treatment of various sensory and neurological disorders. Commercially successful devices such as cochlear implants for deafness, visual prostheses for the blind, deep brain stimulators for Parkinson's disease, spinal cord stimulators for chronic pain, and cervical vagus nerve stimulators for epilepsy can provide effective treatment by electrical stimulation of neurons for a range of disorders for which conventional surgery is not an option. However, existing neural electrical stimulation devices have inherent limitations, such as charge injection limitation, low channel count, mechanical mismatch, electrical crosstalk, undesirable electrochemical reactions, surgical complexity, and issues related to wiring and hermetic connections with implanted electronics. In addition, current electrical stimulation protocols fail to recreate a physiological electrophysiological activity pattern in the targeted nervous system, resulting in poor information transfer between a device and biology. The development of many neural stimulators has reached an impasse where the level of artificially evoked function is still limited and does not justify the routine implantation of these devices in the majority of patients.
Recent technological advances, particularly in the development of new materials, and the miniaturization of electronics have made it possible to design more sophisticated devices. New technologies such as organic neural interfaces or non-electrical stimulation techniques have been developed to solve the problems caused by massive metallic electrodes. Sophisticated stimulation strategies, such as stimulation at different frequencies or temporal interface stimulation paradigms, have also been mostly used to improve the effectiveness and acceptability of the devices. In addition, there have been numerous studies that have expanded our understanding of how artificial stimulation interacts with the nervous system in hopes of sending more accurate information to the living nervous system.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research Article and Review on recent technological advances that directly address the challenge of being able to improve the performance of neural electrical stimulation. Topics of interests include:
- Advances in sophisticated stimulation strategies that allow bioelectronics to improve efficacy and acceptance;
- Advances in stimulation methods that allow artificially induced activity to more in line with physiological activity;
- New insights into alternative neuromodulation methods (e.g., optogenetic stimulation, ultrasound stimulation) that minimize the limitations imposed by conventional implant systems with solid metal electrodes;
- New findings in the neural encoding of artificial stimuli.
- Technological developments in implant materials, manufacturing and packaging techniques that improve the performance of neural electrical stimulation;
Ex vivo / in vivo experiments to develop and evaluate specific technologies and in silico studies ranging from finite element neural electrostimulation to tissue-device interaction are welcome.
Since the 1980s, implantable bionic devices have had significant potential in the diagnosis and treatment of various sensory and neurological disorders. Commercially successful devices such as cochlear implants for deafness, visual prostheses for the blind, deep brain stimulators for Parkinson's disease, spinal cord stimulators for chronic pain, and cervical vagus nerve stimulators for epilepsy can provide effective treatment by electrical stimulation of neurons for a range of disorders for which conventional surgery is not an option. However, existing neural electrical stimulation devices have inherent limitations, such as charge injection limitation, low channel count, mechanical mismatch, electrical crosstalk, undesirable electrochemical reactions, surgical complexity, and issues related to wiring and hermetic connections with implanted electronics. In addition, current electrical stimulation protocols fail to recreate a physiological electrophysiological activity pattern in the targeted nervous system, resulting in poor information transfer between a device and biology. The development of many neural stimulators has reached an impasse where the level of artificially evoked function is still limited and does not justify the routine implantation of these devices in the majority of patients.
Recent technological advances, particularly in the development of new materials, and the miniaturization of electronics have made it possible to design more sophisticated devices. New technologies such as organic neural interfaces or non-electrical stimulation techniques have been developed to solve the problems caused by massive metallic electrodes. Sophisticated stimulation strategies, such as stimulation at different frequencies or temporal interface stimulation paradigms, have also been mostly used to improve the effectiveness and acceptability of the devices. In addition, there have been numerous studies that have expanded our understanding of how artificial stimulation interacts with the nervous system in hopes of sending more accurate information to the living nervous system.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research Article and Review on recent technological advances that directly address the challenge of being able to improve the performance of neural electrical stimulation. Topics of interests include:
- Advances in sophisticated stimulation strategies that allow bioelectronics to improve efficacy and acceptance;
- Advances in stimulation methods that allow artificially induced activity to more in line with physiological activity;
- New insights into alternative neuromodulation methods (e.g., optogenetic stimulation, ultrasound stimulation) that minimize the limitations imposed by conventional implant systems with solid metal electrodes;
- New findings in the neural encoding of artificial stimuli.
- Technological developments in implant materials, manufacturing and packaging techniques that improve the performance of neural electrical stimulation;
Ex vivo / in vivo experiments to develop and evaluate specific technologies and in silico studies ranging from finite element neural electrostimulation to tissue-device interaction are welcome.