Editorial information

Journal of Neural Engineering: rationale, goal and scope

The 'decade of the brain' has just ended, yet we still are a long way from understanding how the brain works or even how single neurons process information. This understanding is crucial not only in allowing us to discover how large numbers of cells can store and process information but also to understand the mechanisms underlying neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease or epilepsy. The past few years have seen an explosion of knowledge about neuronal processes and function at the interface between neuroscience and engineering. Decoding the genome of entire species offers new tools to solve complex problems such as memory, information coding and processing in the brain, or regeneration of the spinal cord. The solution of many neuroscience problems will involve highly coordinated and highly interdisciplinary research efforts between neurobiologists and engineers.

The goal of this journal is to establish a new forum for this interdisciplinary field of neural engineering where neuroscientists, neurobiologists and engineers can publish their work in one periodical that bridges the gap between neuroscience and engineering. The new journal will publish full length articles of the highest quality and importance in the field of neural engineering at the molecular, cellular and systems levels.

The scope of the Journal of Neural Engineering encompasses experimental, computational and theoretical aspects of neural interfacing, neuroelectronics, neuromechanical systems, neuroinformatics, neuroimaging, neural prostheses, neural circuits: artificial and biological, neural control, neural tissue regeneration, neural signal processing, neural modeling and neuro-computation. The scope of the journal has both depth and breadth in areas relevant to the interface between neuroscience and engineering. Experts in these areas have been identified for the Editorial Board and the composition of the Board will be continually updated to address the changes in this new and exciting field of neural engineering.

Dominique M Durand
Editor-in-Chief