Electrode-Cellular Interface

摘要

Pacemakers and bionic ears (cochlear implants) (1) were the first medical bionic devices to be used successfully in humans. On the horizon there is the prospect of a neural prosthesis capable of operating prosthetic limbs (2), a bionic eye (3), as well as other devices for the restoration of body function. These developments are crucially dependent on successfully connecting the device to cellular tissue. The development of organic polymer conductors is contributing to achieving that success.rnIn a bionic ear, sound is coded as electrical pulses via a speech processor (see the figure) This temporal pulse pattern stimulates nerve cells in specific areas of the cochlea (the auditory portion of the inner ear) that correspond to different frequencies. The transmission of the pulses is critically dependent on the efficacy of the electrode-cellular interface.