Veteran Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America. Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America. Advanced Platform Technology Center, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, United States of America.
J Neural Eng. 2019 Nov 12;16(6):063002. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ab4869.
Recent advances in neural engineering have restored mobility to people with paralysis, relieved symptoms of movement disorders, reduced chronic pain, restored the sense of hearing, and provided sensory perception to individuals with sensory deficits.
This progress was enabled by the team-based, interdisciplinary approaches used by neural engineers. Neural engineers have advanced clinical frontiers by leveraging tools and discoveries in quantitative and biological sciences and through collaborations between engineering, science, and medicine. The movement toward bioelectronic medicines, where neuromodulation aims to supplement or replace pharmaceuticals to treat chronic medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and psychiatric disorders is a prime example of a new frontier made possible by neural engineering. Although one of the major goals in neural engineering is to develop technology for clinical applications, this technology may also offer unique opportunities to gain insight into how biological systems operate.
Despite significant technological progress, a number of ethical and strategic questions remain unexplored. Addressing these questions will accelerate technology development to address unmet needs. The future of these devices extends far beyond treatment of neurological impairments, including potential human augmentation applications. Our task, as neural engineers, is to push technology forward at the intersection of disciplines, while responsibly considering the readiness to transition this technology outside of the laboratory to consumer products.
This article aims to highlight the current state of the neural engineering field, its links with other engineering and science disciplines, and the challenges and opportunities ahead. The goal of this article is to foster new ideas for innovative applications in neurotechnology.
神经工程学的最新进展已经恢复了瘫痪患者的运动能力，缓解了运动障碍症状，减轻了慢性疼痛，恢复了听力，并为感觉功能障碍患者提供了感官知觉。
神经工程师采用团队合作的跨学科方法取得了这一进展。神经工程师通过利用定量和生物科学领域的工具和发现，并通过工程、科学和医学之间的合作，推动了临床前沿的发展。生物电子药物的发展就是一个很好的例子，神经调节旨在补充或替代药物来治疗高血压、糖尿病和精神障碍等慢性疾病，这是神经工程开辟的一个新前沿。尽管神经工程学的主要目标之一是开发用于临床应用的技术，但这项技术也可能为深入了解生物系统的运作方式提供独特的机会。
尽管取得了重大技术进展，但仍有一些伦理和战略问题尚未得到探讨。解决这些问题将加速技术开发，以满足未满足的需求。这些设备的未来远不止于治疗神经损伤，包括潜在的人类增强应用。作为神经工程师，我们的任务是在学科交叉点推动技术发展，同时负责任地考虑将这项技术从实验室过渡到消费产品的准备情况。
本文旨在强调神经工程领域的现状、它与其他工程和科学学科的联系，以及未来的挑战和机遇。本文的目的是为神经技术的创新应用提出新的想法。
