Neural Interface: Frontiers and Applications

This book will focus on frontiers of neural interface technology, including hardware, software, neural decoding and encoding, control system, and system integration. It will also cover the respects of applications for neuroprosthetics, neural diseases, neurorobotics, and also the toolkits for basic neuroscience. A neural interface establishes a direct communication channel with the central or peripheral nervous system (CNS or PNS), and enables the nervous system to interact directly with the external devices. Recent advances in neuroscience and engineering are speeding up neural interface technology, opening the door to assist, augment, repair or restore sensorimotor or other cognitive functions due to neurological disease or trauma, and thus improving the quality of life for the individuals with disabilities. Neural interfaces are now being explored in applications as diverse as rehabilitation, accessibility, gaming, education, recreation, robotics and human enhancement. Neural interfaces also represent a powerful tool to address fundamental questions in neuroscience. The past decades have witnessed tremendous advancements in the field of neural interface with high impact not only in the development of neuroprosthetics, but also in our basic understanding of brain function. Neural interface technology can be seen as a bridge across the traditional engineering and basic neuroscience. This book aims at providing the researchers, graduate and upper undergraduate students from a wide range of disciplines with a cutting-edge and comprehensive summary of researches on neural interface engineering.