An Implantable System for Neural Communication and Stimulation: Design and Implementation

Assistive technologies enable humans to enhance their abilities and restore missing or lost physiological functions. However, some pathologies, such as facial palsy, are currently treated only with invasive surgical procedures. This article introduces a novel bio-compatible and safe implantable engineered based system for neural communication and stimulation, which is able to overcome facial paralysis due to a nerve lesion by highly reducing the need for surgeries. The proposed system design leverages on ultra-low-power intra-body communication technologies to forward a signal extracted from a healthy nerve toward the injured contralater one. Preliminary prototypes are described to assess the feasibility of the proposed solution and the design of the overall communication system. Technical challenges that may be faced in the implementation of the system are discussed. The proposed solution opens the way to new opportunities for realizing innovative systems that employ unconventional communication technologies to support healthcare applications, with particular focus on neurological disease therapies.