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Neural Engineering Background

Background Information on Neural Engineering

This page will contain a myriad of background information on Neural Engineering and the fields that it encompasses.

When, Why, and How was Neural Engineering Created?

  • The first journals specifically devoted to neural engineering as a field - The Journal of Neuroengineering and The Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation - both emerged in 2004.

  • It was created and established as its own independent area of study because scientists were interested in understanding, interfacing, and manipulating the nervous system throughout a variety of different fields. They also wanted to find and develop modern ways and technologies to be able to get a deeper image and understanding of neural disorders in different areas of the body. (source)

  • Neural Engineering is the culmination of engineering technologies, mathematics, and computational methods being combined with various fields in neuroscience and biology (source

Is This Field Still in Development?

  • Neural engineering is definitely still in development because it is considered a brand new field with limited information about it, although it is growing rapidly. However, some fields that are included within Neural Engineering (such as Neural Networks and Neuroprostheses) have been documented more than others. 

  • What scientists hope for is the ability to interface and manipulate various neural systems and have them interact with computing systems. This already has begun to happen with things such as neural networks and neurorobotics. 

Interesting Developments in Neural Engineering

  • An example of electrical neural prosthetic devices, the Utah Electrode Array (UEA), originally invented by R. Normann of Bioengineering, contains 100 individual electrodes; each of which can very selectively stimulate and record from neural tissue. This system is currently being enhanced with wireless, real-time, brain-to-computer interfacing. Potential clinical applications currently under investigation include: reanimation of paralyzed limbs, providing control of, and sensory feedback from, advanced neuroprosthetic limbs, vision restoration, treatment of things such as epilepsy, and pain mitigation, among others. (source)

  • Neural scientists are able to monitor and analyze brain patterns to gain more knowledge on neural diseases such as Parkinson’s. This has huge implications on treatment plans for said neural diseases.

  • Neural networks, a field within Neural Engineering, have been developed in modern times where computers have begun to implement various types of machine learning by simulating the way the neural mappings in our brains works. This been in very active development as the computing power available has gone up rapidly over the past few years, and the uses for neural networks are increasingly constantly. 

  • Neural scientists have been able to develop prostheses for lost limbs / organs (such as hearing aids, arm / hand replacements, etc.).

  • With the developments of various neuroimaging techniques, neural scientists have been able to study the brain in action with a lot more detail and precision, moving neuroscience forward

Current Major Challenges in Neural Engineering

  • Since this field is still new, the information is still limited for someone who is trying to be a neural engineer.

  • Neural engineering potentially uses a lot of computing power (which means higher energy consumption), which is in growing supply as computational technologies have improved over the years.

  • The nervous system has historically been very difficult to observe in real time as there was no real way to analyse what was happening (with components such as the brain), but this has improved with the development of various neuroimaging systems.

Improvement of Major Technologies

  • Various major technologies have improved through the use of Neural Engineering because there are technologies that are being developed to interact with the human brain. University of Duke is developing technologies that can cure neurological disorders. (source)

  • Various different areas of computing have also improved vastly through the use of neural engineering (with things such as the active development of neural networks).

  • Diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders has improved vastly due to new neuroimaging techniques

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