Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) delivers electrical impulses to the vagus nerve — the longest cranial nerve, running from the brainstem through the neck to the thorax and abdomen — to modulate neural circuits involved in epilepsy, depression, inflammation, and motor recovery.
UK neurotechnology landscape spanning regional research clusters, ARIA and UKRI programmes, MHRA clinical-investigation growth, startups, manufacturing bottlenecks, and policy gaps.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive brain-stimulation technique that uses rapidly changing magnetic fields generated by a coil placed on the scalp to induce electric currents in underlying cortical tissue.
A Frontiers in Neuroscience review compares single-element transducers, phased arrays, and acoustic holograms for transcranial focused ultrasound on focal volume, steering, and aberration correction.1 When aperture, transmit frequency, focal depth, effective source geometry, and aberration correcti...
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) delivers weak direct electrical current (typically 1-2 mA) to the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp.
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) applies sinusoidal electrical currents to the scalp at specific frequencies, with the goal of entraining endogenous brain oscillations.
Single-photon miniscopes support large-scale calcium imaging in freely behaving animals but suffer from out-of-focus background fluorescence that lowers image contrast and single-cell signal fidelity.1 Multiphoton imaging reduces that background problem but remains costly and complex for many labs....
Steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) are periodic neural responses generated in the visual cortex when a person gazes at a visual stimulus flickering at a constant frequency.
Trade press reported that Chinese BCI startup StairMed closed a financing round described as about $72.8 million.1 A separate syndicated report described the round as about $73 million and said the company would use funds to advance brain–machine interface (BMI) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) sys...
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) delivers electrical pulses to the dorsal columns or dorsal root entry zones of the spinal cord via implanted epidural electrodes.
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are computational models that process information using discrete spikes — binary events transmitted between units at specific times — mirroring the fundamental signaling mechanism of biological neurons.
A Journal of Neural Engineering study compares spatiotemporal astrocytic and neuronal responses to repetitive intracortical microstimulation (ICMS).1 Astrocytes are treated as active modulators of neuronal synaptic transmission, not just passive support cells.1 ICMS is widely used to control neuron...
A PNAS Neuroscience paper reports that a hierarchical cascade of sleep rhythms supports motor memory and can be disrupted by epileptic spikes in human epilepsy.1 Sleep-dependent memory consolidation is thought to depend on coordinated slow oscillations, spindles, and ripples linking cortex, thalamu...
Twiddler syndrome (TS) is a rare hardware-related complication in which manipulation or excessive mobility of an implanted pacemaker or implantable pulse generator (IPG) causes device malfunction.1 TS has traditionally been diagnosed only after lead coiling, fracture, displacement, or loss of thera...
A Journal of Neural Engineering study presents a spatio-temporal transformer—“the seizure embedding map”—for comparing patients by ictal intracranial EEG (iEEG) features at scale.1 Invasive treatment planning for medication-resistant epilepsy depends on interpreting iEEG to identify seizure onset p...
Seizure detection and prediction systems use neural signal analysis to identify epileptic seizures in real time or forecast their occurrence before clinical onset.
Secure LSL is a unified encryption architecture for the Lab Streaming Layer (LSL), described in a bioRxiv Neuroscience preprint.1 LSL is widely used for synchronized multimodal biosignal recording in neuroscience research.1 The standard LSL protocol transmits all data in plaintext.1 Plaintext LSL s...
Researchers introduce a Riemannian manifold dynamic attention fusion network for decoding motor imagery EEG for BCI control.1 The architecture fuses Riemannian manifold–based EEG features with a dynamic attention module to improve classification of imagined movement.1 The pipeline is geometry-aware...
Retinal prostheses are neural-implants designed to restore visual perception in individuals with outer retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.
A randomized, triple-blind, sham-controlled trial enrolled 36 male soccer players into active tDCS, sham tDCS, or no-intervention control while continuing regular training.1 Active stimulation was 1.5 mA tDCS over the right DLPFC for 20 minutes, 5 days/week for 4 weeks; sham was 1 minute of 1.5 mA ...
A Nature Neuroscience article (online 18 March 2026; DOI 10.1038/s41593-026-02229-9) reports longitudinal, long-duration precision fMRI in people receiving deep brain stimulation (DBS).1 Stimulation-related activity patterns dissociate globus pallidus circuits from primary motor cortex (M1) circuit...
A Frontiers in Human Neuroscience paper applies polarity-considered EEG microstate labeling to stimulus-driven classification in an oddball paradigm, reporting improved classification accuracy versus approaches that ignore polarity in the stated framing.1 The authors motivate BCIs as needing effici...
Peripheral nerve interfaces are devices that establish electrical communication with nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, typically targeting motor and sensory nerves in the limbs.
A Frontiers in Neuroscience survey addresses stroke and spinal cord injury populations with persistent motor/sensory deficits and frames invasive BCIs—especially ECoG—as a potential route to bypass injury and restore function.1 Researchers surveyed receptiveness to surgical implantation of ECoG gri...
The P300 is a positive-going event-related potential (ERP) component that peaks approximately 300 milliseconds after an infrequent or task-relevant stimulus is presented within a stream of frequent stimuli.
Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to control neurons that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels (opsins).
NextSense, founded by CEO JB and originally incubated at Google X, makes ordinary-looking earbuds that record EEG from the ear canal.1 Ear EEG trades the spatial resolution of clinical scalp EEG for continuous, practical brain monitoring in daily life.1 The earbuds monitor sleep and use closed-loop...
Neurotechnology ethics encompasses the moral, social, and legal questions raised by technologies that record, stimulate, or interface with the human nervous system.
Neurorehabilitation is the medical process of aiding recovery from nervous system injury or disease, encompassing therapeutic strategies for stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and neurodegenerative conditions.
Neuroimaging refers to the set of techniques used to visualize brain structure and function, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG), eeg, and optical imaging methods.
Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback in which real-time measurements of brain activity are presented to the user, enabling them to learn voluntary self-regulation of specific neural signals.
Neural decoding refers to the computational process of extracting information about stimuli, intentions, or cognitive states from recorded neural activity.
NeuCyber is described in trade/aggregator coverage as a China-backed brain–computer interface company.1 A March 2026 Inshorts headline claims NeuCyber said it is about three years behind Neuralink and frames China as the “second country” to begin human trials of implantable BCI—claims that should b...
A Journal of Neural Engineering study targets passive BCIs for mental workload using code-based VEP (c-VEP), motivated by conventional flickering VEP/c-VEP stimuli being distracting and visually uncomfortable.1 The approach combines near-invisible, texture-based flicker embedded in UI regions of in...
Mave Health is reported to have raised $2.1 million toward a neurotechnology wearable positioned for focus support and stress regulation.1 Coverage describes the product lane as consumer neurofeedback or light neuromodulation adjacent to consumer BCI-style applications, and characterizes the round ...
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures the weak magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in neuronal assemblies, providing a non-invasive window into brain activity with millisecond temporal resolution.
Local field potentials (LFPs) are extracellular voltage fluctuations recorded from within brain tissue, reflecting the aggregate synaptic activity, dendritic processing, and subthreshold membrane oscillations of neuronal populations near the electrode tip.
Researchers introduce a likelihood-based method to identify neural replay directly from spike sequences.1 The framework is designed to detect hippocampal replay events in spike-train data.1 Replay identification is cast as a likelihood inference problem over sequential spike activity.1 The paper ap...
Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) delivers small electrical currents through microelectrodes implanted directly in the cerebral cortex to activate nearby neurons with high spatial and temporal precision.
A bioRxiv Neuroscience preprint proposes a hierarchy of supported modules (HSM) to highlight spatiotemporal structure in neural recordings and represent error states.1 Erroneous behaviors and other abnormal brain states are generally difficult to represent directly from neural data despite carrying...
High-definition high-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (HD/HF-tRNS) was delivered offline to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).1 Twenty-six healthy adults completed a double-blind, sham-controlled, between-groups experiment.1 Active HD/HF-tRNS improved performance on Ra...
A bioRxiv Neuroscience preprint argues that a simple geometric recentering approach can rival deep sequence models for cross-session EEG motor-imagery (MI) decoding.1 The authors run a controlled benchmark across eight public MI datasets spanning 3–128 channels, 2–3 classes, and both single- and mu...
Annual 10-day intensive program by g.tec medical engineering covering BCI foundations, invasive and non-invasive recording, AI-driven decoding, neurorehabilitation, and the BR41N.IO global hackathon.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive optical neuroimaging technique that measures changes in cerebral oxygenation by detecting the differential absorption of near-infrared light by oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures brain activity indirectly by detecting changes in blood oxygenation — the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal — that accompany neural activity.
Functional electrical stimulation (FES) applies controlled electrical currents to peripheral nerves or muscles to produce functional movements in individuals with paralysis or motor impairment.
Motor thalamus deep brain stimulation (DBS) has frequency-dependent effects on speech and swallowing.1 The work appears in Nature Communications under the neuroscience subject area.1 The study maps how motor-thalamus DBS frequency changes speech and swallowing outcomes in clinical neuromodulation.1...
Foundation models for neural data are large-scale, pre-trained models designed to learn general representations from brain recordings — spanning EEG, ECoG, fMRI, and intracortical spike trains — that can then be fine-tuned or adapted for specific downstream tasks.
Focused ultrasound stimulation-and-neuromodulation uses converging beams of low-intensity acoustic energy to non-invasively modulate neural activity in targeted brain regions.
A Frontiers in Human Neuroscience study used 48-channel fNIRS during robot-assisted upper-limb training after stroke across four modes in a single session: Passive, Assistive-active, Active, and Mirror.1 Forty-one stroke patients were grouped by functional level, chronicity, and hemiplegic side.1 T...
STAT+ frames a newly cleared FDA device as a historic case that asks whether a large language model is the user interface or the actual decision-maker.1 The cleared product is Updoc’s diabetes app, which helps patients manage their condition using a treatment plan set by their doctor.1 The app embe...
Epia Neuro is developing an implanted brain–computer interface aimed at helping stroke patients recover hand movement, described in mainstream coverage as pairing cortical recording with a motorized glove for rehabilitation.1 The same reporting frames the goal as supporting cortical “rewiring” to r...
Endovascular brain-computer interfaces are neural recording and stimulation devices implanted through the vascular system rather than via open craniotomy.
Electrocorticography (ECoG) records electrical activity directly from the surface of the cerebral cortex using electrode grids or strips placed subdurally.
Researchers report an EEG-based silent BCI for decoding imagined Chinese speech, published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.1 The study targets a gap in non-English speech prosthesis research, where silent BCIs using Chinese stimuli have been understudied.1 The authors designed a Chinese speech...
A Journal of Neural Engineering study frames motor learning as central to neurorehabilitation after conditions such as stroke and proposes pairing BCIs with repetitive TMS while criticizing fixed-schedule rTMS that ignores ongoing brain state.1 The protocol delivers closed-loop, BCI-gated rTMS time...
A PNAS Neuroscience study assessed diverse deep brain stimulation (DBS) targets for antidepressant effects in rats.1 The work reports a common neural pathway that can produce instantaneous antidepressant-like effects across multiple DBS targets.1 Clinical DBS for depression has been held back by in...
A Journal of Neurophysiology Ahead-of-Print paper applies deep learning to MEG recordings of auditory and visual mental imagery.1 The study reports cross-modal neural representations shared across imagined auditory and visual content.1 Deep-learning models decode these imagery-related patterns from...
Deep brain-stimulation (DBS) involves the surgical implantation of electrodes into specific subcortical brain structures, delivering continuous or patterned electrical stimulation to modulate neural circuit activity.
Cochlear implants are neural-implants that restore auditory perception in individuals with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss by directly stimulating the auditory nerve.
Closed-loop neurotechnology refers to systems that record neural or physiological signals, process them in real time, and use the decoded information to adjust stimulation, feedback, or device output on a moment-to-moment basis.
Nature Communications reports that closed-loop readout of anterior insula high-gamma activity can steer value-based decisions.1 The study used intracranial electrophysiology (iEEG/ECoG) to read anterior insula signals in real time.1 High-gamma activity in the anterior insula served as the neural re...
South China Morning Post reports that China has completed what it describes as the world’s first commercial brain-chip implant.1 The story is framed as a brain-computer interface milestone rather than a purely experimental lab demonstration.1 Coverage presents the procedure as a commercialization s...
A brain-spine interface is a closed-loop neuroprosthetic system that creates a wireless digital bridge between the brain and the spinal cord, restoring volitional control of movement after paralysis.
EEG-based auditory attention decoding (AAD) aims to identify which talker a listener attends to in multi-talker (“cocktail party”) scenes so hearing devices can enhance that voice and treat others as noise.1 Geirnaert et al.
Brain stimulation encompasses a family of techniques that modulate neural activity by delivering energy — electrical, magnetic, acoustic, or optical — to brain tissue.
Biotronik Neuro acquired a portfolio of spinal cord stimulation patents from Soin Neuroscience.1 Soin Neuroscience is an Ohio-based medical device company.1 The deal is aimed at building a next-generation spinal cord stimulation program for pain.1 The acquisition expands Biotronik Neuro’s neuromodu...
Bioelectronic medicine is an emerging therapeutic paradigm that uses implanted or external devices to modulate electrical signaling in the peripheral nervous system to treat disease.
Beinao-1 is described as a semi-invasive brain–machine interface (BMI) system presented during a media tour in Beijing.1 Coverage appeared via Reuters Connect and was indexed under Google News brain–machine interface topic aggregation.1 Available materials emphasize a press-style demonstration rath...
A new study shows non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) training can accelerate perceptual learning.1 The approach works by actively amplifying Error Positivity (Pe), a neural signature linked to error detection.1 BCI neurofeedback is used to boost brainwave responses that help detect micro-e...
Prediction errors (PEs) drive perceptual learning by updating internal models of the sensory environment.1 Researchers recorded intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) from 17 patients during a roving auditory oddball task.1 Participants performed the oddball task under both attended and u...
Human primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1) beta oscillations help regulate motor and cognitive behavior in both health and disease.1 Standard assessment of SM1 beta activity depends on costly, complex neuroimaging, which limits scalable and translational use.1 Researchers propose assessing beta oscill...
Researchers introduce amplitude-modulated kilohertz magnetic perturbation (AM-kTMP), a new non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) method for manipulating speech perception.1 Speech perception is hypothesized to exploit neural activity that entrains to the rhythmic properties of spoken utterances.1 P...
The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) released clinical guidelines on neuromodulation advances.1 The guidelines address neuromodulation for pain management.1 The guidelines also cover neuromodulation applications for functional recovery.1 Clinical Pain Advisor reported the AAPM guidelines re...
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