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♤ Neuroprosthetics (also called neural prosthetics) is a discipline related to neuroscience and biomedical engineering concerned with developing neural prostheses (In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is a device that replaces a missing body part) . Neural prostheses are a series of devices that can substitute a motor, sensory or cognitive modality that might have been damaged as a result of an injury or a disease. Cochlear implants (The cochlea is the auditory portion of the inner ear)-(for hearing aid) provide an example of such devices. These devices substitute the functions performed by the ear drum and Stapes, while simulating the frequency analysis performed in the cochlea. A microphone on an external unit gathers the sound and processes it; the processed signal is then transferred to an implanted unit that stimulates the auditory nerves through a microelectrode array. Through the replacement or augmentation of damaged senses, these devices intend to improve the quality of life for those with disabilities.
♤ These implantable devices are also commonly used in animal experimentation as a tool to aid neuroscientists in developing a greater understanding of the brain and its functioning. In wirelessly monitoring the brain's electrical signals sent out by electrodes implanted in the subject's brain, the subject can be studied without the device affecting the results.