Shattered Nerves: How Science Is Solving Modern Medicine's Most Perplexing Problem

A study of advancements in neural technology, what they can do, and where they could lead us.

Once the stuff of science fiction, neural prosthetics are now a reality. Research and technology are creating implants that enable the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the paralyzed to move.

Shattered Nerves leads us into a new medical frontier, where sophisticated, state-of-the-art medical devices repair and restore failed sensory and motor systems. In a compelling narrative that reveals the intimate relationship between technology and the physicians, scientists, and patients who bring it to life, Victor D. Chase explores groundbreaking developments in neural technology.

Through personal interviews and extensive research, Chase introduces us to the people and devices that are restoring shattered lives—from implants that enable the paralyzed to stand, walk, feed, and groom themselves, to those that restore bladder and bowel control, and even sexual function. Signals from the brains of paralyzed people are captured and transformed to allow them to operate computers. Brain implants hold the potential to resolve psychiatric illnesses and to restore the ability to form memories in damaged brains.

Chase also explores troubling boundaries between restoration and enhancement, where implants could conceivably endow the able-bodied with superhuman capabilities. He concludes with a provocative question: Just because we can, does that mean we should?

“Chase has looked into the future of broken nervous systems and how we might fix them?with all of the corresponding hopes and perils. . . . A fascinating book, both stimulating and exciting, and makes you think about what it means to be human.” —Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of The Ethical Brain

© 2006 Johns Hopkins University Press (Ebook): 9780801892134

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Ebook: 24 November 2006