Neuromodulation: present and emerging methods.

Front Neuroeng

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London London, UK ; Center for Bio-Inspired Technology, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London London, UK.

Published: July 2014

AI Article Synopsis

  • Neuromodulation has the potential to enhance impaired neural function, offer new medical treatments, and aid in neuroscience research.
  • Current methods like electrical neural stimulation (ENS) are commonly used in both neuroscience and clinical settings for neuroprosthetics, but there are various alternative techniques available.
  • This paper examines the latest developments in ENS and other neuromodulation methods, discussing their concepts, technical implementation, and limitations to guide better system design.

Article Abstract

Neuromodulation has wide ranging potential applications in replacing impaired neural function (prosthetics), as a novel form of medical treatment (therapy), and as a tool for investigating neurons and neural function (research). Voltage and current controlled electrical neural stimulation (ENS) are methods that have already been widely applied in both neuroscience and clinical practice for neuroprosthetics. However, there are numerous alternative methods of stimulating or inhibiting neurons. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in ENS as well as alternative neuromodulation techniques-presenting the operational concepts, technical implementation and limitations-in order to inform system design choices.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4097946PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneng.2014.00027DOI Listing

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