Functional electrical stimulation is the most important application in the field of clinical treatment with currents or magnetism. This technique artificially generates neural activity in order to overcome lost functions of the paralized, incontinent or sensory handicapped patient. Electricity and magnetism is also used in many cases, e.g., to stimulate bone growth or wound healing. Nevertheless, the basic mechanism of the artificial excitation of nerve and muscle fibers has become known only in the last few years. Although many textbooks are concerned with the natural excitation process there is a lack of information on the influence of an applied electrical or magnetic field. This book, written for students and biomedical engineers, should close the gap and, furthermore, it should stimulate the design of new instrumentation using optimal strategies.

Chronic electrical stimulation of the brain has demonstrated excellent outcomes in patients with Parkinson’s disease and has recently also been applied to various other neurological diseases. This comprehensive, up-to-date textbook will meet the needs of all who wish to learn more about the application of deep brain stimulation and will provide a sound basis for safe and accurate surgery. The book comprises two main parts, the first of which presents relevant anatomical and functional background information on the basal ganglia, thalamus and other brain structures as well as on the mechanism of brain stimulation. The second part describes clinical studies on deep brain stimulation, covering results in a range of movement disorders and psychiatric diseases and also important aspects of instrumentation and technique. The authors are outstanding scientists and experts in the field from across the world.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Deep brain stimulation is a remarkable therapy that has mainstreamed electrical stimulation of the brain for the treatment of neurological dysfunction. To appreciate the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation, we need to understand the excitability of neural tissue. Here, we survey the pertinent principles of electrical excitation in the brain. The amount of current delivered and the tissue conductivity together determine the strength and extent of potentials generated by stimulation. The electrode–tissue interface is an important junction where electrical charge carriers in the stimulation hardware are converted to ionic charge carriers in the tissue. Cathodic stimulation tends to depolarize neural elements more easily than anodic stimulation. The current–distance relationship describes how the amount of current needed to excite an axon increases as a function of its distance from the electrode. This relationship also depends on the axon’s diameter because large-diameter axons are excited more easily than small-diameter axons. For a given axon, the strength–duration relationship describes the inverse relationship between threshold current amplitude and pulse duration. Specific stimulation parameters must be considered to avoid stimulation-induced tissue damage. A strong foundation in these principles facilitates understanding of the complex effects of electrical stimulation in the brain.

Despite enormous advances made in the development of external effector prosthetics over the last quarter century, significant questions remain, especially those concerning signal degradation that occurs with chronically implanted neuroelectrodes. Offering contributions from pioneering researchers in neuroprosthetics and tissue repair, Indwel

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant source of death and permanent disability, contributing to nearly one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States and exacting a profound personal and economic toll. Despite the increased resources that have recently been brought to bear to improve our understanding of TBI, the developme

This volume describes a new direction in technological and biomedical developments for profoundly deaf individuals. The first section covers topics of tissue characteristics, such as responses to electrical stimulation and computer modelling of cochlea currents. Perception of acoustic signals, responses and behavioral pattern as well as psychophysical aspects are treated in the second part. Part III is addressed to perspectives and challenges of encoding schemes. Reports on studies of acoustic and electrical encoding of temporal information, speech features with cochlear implants as well as psychophysical and speech perceptual studies will allow further strategies for cochlea implants.