Coupling a Sensory Artefact to the Brain

THE construction of artificial analogues of sensory receptors has recently become practicable. There are a number of electronic and electro-mechanical techniques for converting external stimuli into discharge trains similar to those initiated by receptors in the afferent peripheral nerves. It is more difficult, however, to devise satisfactory ways of coupling this type of mechanism to the brain so that the sensory influx provides information resulting in the evolution of a realistic motor programme. Although progress has been made in unravelling the “sensory coding” along some receptor channels1,2, much remains to be learned about the nature of sensory signals, their spatio-temporal organization and their interaction patterns. This communication briefly describes an attempt to couple a sensory artefact to brain, which uses a biologically destructive stimulus as an input source and which feeds a neural centre, the output of which has been empirically determined to be appropriate to such an input.