Technology

Delivering electrical currents to nerves can not only serve to stimulate them, by inducing action potentials that are carried along the nerve and finally activate the end organ (e.g., a muscle). Certain stimulation patterns can also suppress nerve activity, leading to an inhibitory effect on the respective end organs. This is of specific interest for […]

CorTec’s cuff electrodes have proven extremely helpful as interfaces for electrically interacting with the peripheral nervous system. The range of possible applications is vast. Cuff sizes, shapes and contact arrangements can be tailored to the specific target nerves, and the electrodes can both, stimulate and record. Nerve stimulation is often used for activating muscles, e.g.

Our urinary bladders have to fulfil two very different functions: On the one hand, they need to reliably collect urine throughout the day without any unintentional leakage. On the other hand, they need to empty as completely as possible during urination. To that end, the muscles involved in those two processes need to perform opposite

The extent to which our everyday life relies on dexterous usage of our hands is something that we usually only realize when things go wrong, e.g., when we break a bone and our hand is fixed in a plaster cast. Tetraplegic patients permanently suffer from these restrictions throughout their lives. Restoring hand movements, especially functional

We all intuitively know that our mental states can affect our physical wellbeing. Especially when it comes to fighting off infections, it is common knowledge that too much stress affects our resilience against germs. And yet, the concrete details of how our brain activity influences the immune system have remained largely unclear. A new, massively