Andrej Kral received MD in general medicine in 1993 and a PhD in pathological physiology in 1998 from the Medical School, Comenius University, Slovak Republic. Since 2009, he has been professor of auditory neurophysiology at the Medical School Hanover, director of Dept. of Experimental Otology, and Co-Director of the Institute of AudioNeuroTechnology of the Medical School Hannover. In 2017, he became member of the National Academy of Science and in 2018, he was appointed professor of systems neuroscience at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Dr. Kral has been teaching different aspects of neuroscience and neuroprosthetics since 1998 (to medical students, biologists and engineers).

Dr. Kral has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, including high-impact journals New England J Med, Science, Lancet Neurol, Nat Neurosci, Trends Neurosci and Brain. He published several reviews on deafness both in clinical as well as in theoretical journals. He coauthored a book on computational neuroscience, edited one of the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research volume (47) and is a chapter author (vol. 20). Dr. Kral has been chapter author for several edited volumes including the recent "The Auditory Cortex? (Springer). His areas of expertise include electrical stimulation of neurons, cochlear implants, central neuroprosthetics, plasticity and development of the brain. For more details, publications and a complete CV, see [...]

INTRODUCTION1. Prostheses for the brain: the future of bionics

PRINCIPLES2. Currents and conductivity in electrolytes: ions, polarizing and non-polarizing electrodes3. Excitable tissue: membrane potentials4. Electrical stimulation: Safety and efficacy5. Artificial excitation of axons and neurons: Electrical stimulation rules6. Long-term brain adaptations

APPLICATIONS7. Mechanical prostheses in the auditory system 8. Electrical prostheses in the auditory system (cochlear implants, brainstem and midbrain implants)9. Retinal implants10. Cortical implants11. Deep brain stimulation12. Peripheral nerve stimulation13. Sensing (recording) implants

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS14. Optogenetics15. Ultrasound stimulation16. Transcranial stimulation