Neuroprosthetics

Neuroprosthetics is an area of neuroscience concerned with neural prostheses, that is, artificial devices used to replace or improve the function of an impaired nervous system. The neuroprosthetic seeing the most widespread use is the cochlear implant, which is in approximately 85,000 people worldwide as of 2005. An early difficulty in the development of neuroprosthetics was reliably locating the electrodes in the brain, originally done by inserting the electrodes with needles and breaking off the needles at the desired depth