Prostheses for the Brain: Introduction to Neuroprosthetics

Prostheses for the Brain: Introduction to Neuroprosthetics bridges the disciplines required in the field of neuroprosthetics and provides the interdisciplinary base required for understanding neuroprosthetic devices. It introduces basic aspects from the physical, bioengineering and medical perspectives, and forms a common knowledge base. It provides the entrance to the field and sets realistic expectations, both regarding potentials as well as limitations, for the devices in both design and outcomes.

The book additionally reviews the technology behind the most frequently used and most clinically successful neuroprosthetic devices. It provides the physiological background for their function, as well as the technology behind them. Finally, the authors suggest future possible developments that may play crucial role in new prostheses for the brain. This gives the reader a comprehensive view on the principles and applications of neuroprostheses. This book has been built from the authors course they teach on neuroprostheses and is ideal for students, engineers and medical professionals in this field.

• Introduces the general principles of conductivity of electrolytes and the processes at the tissue–electrode interface
• Describes safety issues and regulatory rules, clarifies conceptual differences between stimulating and sensing electrodes
• Reviews stimulation strategies, tissue reactions, potential medical complications, brain adaptations and the clinically most successful applications of neuroprostheses

Andrej Kral received MD in general medicine in 1993 and a PhD in pathological physiology in 1998 from the Medical School, Comenius University, Slovak Republic. Since 2009, he has been professor of auditory neurophysiology at the Medical School Hanover, director of Dept. of Experimental Otology, and Co-Director of the Institute of AudioNeuroTechnology of the Medical School Hannover. In 2017, he became member of the National Academy of Science and in 2018, he was appointed professor of systems neuroscience at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Dr. Kral has been teaching different aspects of neuroscience and neuroprosthetics since 1998 (to medical students, biologists and engineers).

Dr. Kral has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, including high-impact journals New England J Med, Science, Lancet Neurol, Nat Neurosci, Trends Neurosci and Brain. He published several reviews on deafness both in clinical as well as in theoretical journals. He coauthored a book on computational neuroscience, edited one of the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research volume (47) and is a chapter author (vol. 20). Dr. Kral has been chapter author for several edited volumes including the recent “The Auditory Cortex” (Springer). His areas of expertise include electrical stimulation of neurons, cochlear implants, central neuroprosthetics, plasticity and development of the brain. For more details, publications and a complete CV, see www.neuroprostheses.com.

Felix Aplin is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Lower Saxony Center for Biomedical Technology in the Implant Research and Development, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Hannes Maier studied mathematics and physics in Giessen, Germany and received a diploma and a PhD in physics in 1987 and 1993 from J. W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where he worked at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysics on the theory of mechanical interaction between electric fields and cells. During his postdoctoral time he worked on the efferent control of basilar membrane micromechanics at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany. In 1998 he became head of the Audiology and Neurootology Department at the ENT clinics of the University Medical Center Hamburg – Eppendorf, where he was appointed associate professor (PD) in experimental audiology in 2007. After working as research consultant in medical devices at Phonak Acoustic Implants SA, Morges, Switzerland, he was appointed professor of auditory prostheses at the Medical School Hanover in 2012.

Dr. Maier has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles on both topics of transduction processes in the ear as well as methods of measuring ionic concentrations in minimal volumes. He holds several technological patents in this field. His areas of expertise include theoretical biophysics, physical chemistry and physiology of the auditory periphery, interaction of lasers with tissue, and in recent years also, in collaboration with industry partners, mechanical stimulation of the middle ear and the cochlea.