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FULLY INTEGRATED SYSTEMS FOR NEURAL SIGNAL RECORDING: TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE AND LOW-NOISE FRONT-END DESIGN
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Neurological disorders like epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease represent 35% of all diseases in Europe [1], accounting for about 46 million cases over 466 million EU residents, for an aggregate cost of more than 80 billion euros. On a more global scale, 450 million people are affected by neural disorders and 6.8 million people are estimated to die every year as a result of these pathologies worldwide [2]. Moreover, this toll is expected to quickly rise since disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s are forecasted to massively spread in our aging society.
In this frame, electronics can play an important role contributing to developing new monitoring and diagnostic devices and new rehabilitation and therapeutic tools to restore lost skills or to deliver effective treatment of neural diseases. For example, in the last decade, advances in electroencephalogram (EEG) acquisition and processing made it possible to introduce neural activity monitors in the clinical practice [3], and a number of therapies and prosthetic systems gradually entered hospitals and clinics to help patients live a better life: deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease [4] and cochlear implants [5] are just some examples of neurotechnologies today available in health-care ...
