Implanted cortical neuroprosthetics for speech and movement restoration.

Implanted cortical neuroprosthetics (ICNs) are medical devices developed to replace dysfunctional neural pathways by creating information exchange between the brain and a digital system which can facilitate interaction with the external world. Over the last decade, researchers have explored the application of ICNs for diverse conditions including blindness, aphasia, and paralysis. Both transcranial and endovascular approaches have been used to record neural activity in humans, and in a laboratory setting, high-performance decoding of the signals associated with speech intention has been demonstrated. Particular progress towards a device which can move into clinical practice has been made with ICNs focussed on the restoration of speech and movement. This article provides an overview of contemporary ICNs for speech and movement restoration, their mechanisms of action and the unique ethical challenges raised by the field.
Competing Interests: Declarations Conflicts of interest ATS has co-founded and holds shares in Paradromics, Inc. This work was supported by the Francis Crick Institute, which receives its core funding from Cancer Research United Kingdom (UK; Grant FC001153); the UK Medical Research Council (Grant FC001153); the Wellcome Trust (Grant FC001153). JC was supported by a BBSRC Discovery Felllowship (BB/W010623/1). HJM was supported by UCLH/UCL BRC Neuroscience and the Wellcome EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (203145/A/16/Z). HA is supported by UCLH Biomedical Research Centre.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)