Engineering has significant potential to contribute to the understanding and treatment of neurological disorders, as Mary Sweetman reports. The Irish Brain Research Foundation estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 Irish people sufferfrom a disorder of the central nervous system, and taking family and carers into account, half a million people in this country are affected, either directly or indirectly, by neurological illness. While, on one level, many of the workings of the body's organs are governed by chemical and biological reactions, the nervous system functions, in very crude and simplistic terms, by sending and receiving information via electrical impulses. So just as pharma-business has provided tools to diagnose and treat the body chemically, there is a parallel role for electrical and electronic engineering to contribute to neurology.
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