General-pupose technology for a general-purpose nervous system

The nervous system is a one-trick pony, using general-purpose neurons with the same basic signal transduction, transmission and integration mechanisms to handle essentially all information processing needs in the body: sensation and perception, posture and movement, autonomic and visceral function, memory and learning. Over the past fifty years, scientists and engineers have developed many different interfaces between neurons and electronic instrumentation in order to study how individual subsystems work and to fix some of them when they malfunction (e.g. pacemakers, cochlear implants, deep brain stimulators, etc.). While the various interfaces and their applications may look different, they are all based on strikingly similar, fundamental principles of biophysics, electrochemistry and information theory, and enabled by similar microfabrication and microelectronic technologies. Neural control is gradually converging on principles of design and best practices that can and should give rise to engineering standards and interchangeable components for recurring functions such as bioelectric recording and stimulation, transmission of power and data, and physical packaging and user interfaces. As such general tools become available, the clinical applications will be limited only by our understanding of the underlying pathologies, which are often best studied by those same tools. This virtuous circle consists of accessible technology enabling basic science enabling clinical applications generating business success motivating yet more technology.