Excitatory neural control

The electrical excitability phenomenon, inherent to neural tissues, provides an opportunity to effect external control over many body systems paralyzed limbs can be made to move, the blind can experience visual sensations, the deaf people can experience the voice of others close by or by phone, pain can be alleviated, tremors suppressed, and mental disorders treated. Devices, often referred to as neuroprostheses, that perform these functions can be sold. Companies that make devices that provide the most function with the smallest, safest devices that also have long battery lifetimes usually have the market advantage. Function is directly related to electrode placement improperly placed electrodes don t work or have undesirable side effects. The remedy has been reimplantation, but tunable electrodes, structures with multiple small contacts, are making it possible to avoid additional surgery by providing pathways to manipulate the shape of the excitatory fields. 

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