But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom.

FORBES: This is your brain. This is your brain... hacked?

Prof Christopher James, an expert in neural engineering at the University of Warwick, who uses non-invasive techniques in his own research, explains that it is currently not possible to put information into a brain using just the surface of the scalp.

BBC: One rat brain 'talks' to another using electronic link

Pioneered by Todd Kuiken, director of the Neural Engineering Centre for Artificial Limbs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, along with his colleagues Aimee Schultz, Blair Lock and Dr Marasco (who was formerly at NECAL), this involves rerouting the nerves that would have originally controlled and sensed the missing limb and connecting them instead to other parts of the body.

ECONOMIST: Rewiring nerves

Even if the complete repair of a broken nervous system is a distant dream, researchers think that engineering better neural prosthetics will help treat different nervous system diseases.

FORBES: Technology