Augmentation of Sensorimotor Functions with Neural Prostheses

Neural prostheses (NPs) link the brain to external devices, with an eventual goal of recovery of motor and sensory functions to patients with neurological conditions. Over the past half-century, NPs have advanced significantly from the early ideas that sounded like science fiction to the modern high-tech implementations. In particular, invasive recordings using multichannel implants have enabled real-time control of artificial limbs by nonhuman primates and human subjects. Furthermore, NPs can provide artificial sensory feedback, allowing users to perceive the movements of prosthetic limbs and their haptic interaction with external objects. Recently, NP approach was used to build brain-nets that enable information exchange between individual brains and execution of cooperative tasks. This review focuses on invasive NPs for sensorimotor functions.