Clinical neuroscience and neurotechnology: An amazing symbiosis
Andrea Cometa,
Antonio Falasconi,
Marco Biasizzo,
Jacopo Carpaneto,
Andreas Horn,
Alberto Mazzoni,
Silvestro Micera
Affiliations
Andrea Cometa
The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy
Antonio Falasconi
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Marco Biasizzo
The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy
Jacopo Carpaneto
The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy
Andreas Horn
Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics Department of Neurology Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; MGH Neurosurgery & Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery (CNTR) at MGH Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Movement Disorder and Neuromodulation Unit, Department of Neurology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin, Department of Neurology, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Alberto Mazzoni
The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Corresponding author
Silvestro Micera
The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, 56127 Pisa, Italy; Translational Neural Engineering Lab, School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Fèdèrale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Summary: In the last decades, clinical neuroscience found a novel ally in neurotechnologies, devices able to record and stimulate electrical activity in the nervous system. These technologies improved the ability to diagnose and treat neural disorders. Neurotechnologies are concurrently enabling a deeper understanding of healthy and pathological dynamics of the nervous system through stimulation and recordings during brain implants. On the other hand, clinical neurosciences are not only driving neuroengineering toward the most relevant clinical issues, but are also shaping the neurotechnologies thanks to clinical advancements. For instance, understanding the etiology of a disease informs the location of a therapeutic stimulation, but also the way stimulation patterns should be designed to be more effective/naturalistic. Here, we describe cases of fruitful integration such as Deep Brain Stimulation and cortical interfaces to highlight how this symbiosis between clinical neuroscience and neurotechnology is closer to a novel integrated framework than to a simple interdisciplinary interaction.
