Brain-implantable biomimetic electronics as neural prosthetics

Described in this paper is an interdisciplinary effort that will enable the functions of specific brain damaged regions to be replaced by "neurocomputational" microchips that incorporate experimentally-based mathematical models of the nonlinear dynamic properties of biological neurons. To allow the "neurocomputational" microchips to communicate with existing brain tissue, another microcircuitry element has been developed silicon-based multi-electrode arrays that are "neuromorphic", i.e., designed to conform to the region-specific cytoarchitecture of the brain. When the "neurocomputational" and "neuromorphic" components are fully integrated, the envisioned prosthetic will receive electrical impulses from targeted subregions of the brain, process the information using the hardware model of that brain region, and communicate back to the functioning brain.