Given the ever-increasing number of brain readout and control technologies available, a generalized brain coprocessor architecture could be enabled by defining common interfaces governing how component technologies talk to one another, as well as an “operating system” that defines how the overall system works as a unified whole–analogous to the way personal computers govern the interaction of their component hard drives, memories, processors, and displays. Such a brain coprocessor platform could facilitate innovation by enabling neuroengineers to focus on neural prosthetics at an algorithmic level, much as a computer programmer can work on a computer at a conceptual level without having to plan the fate of every individual bit. In addition, if new technologies come along, e.g., a new kind of neural recording technology, they could be incorporated into a system, and in principle rapidly coupled to existing computation and perturbation methods, without requiring the heavy readaptation of those other components.

Developing such brain coprocessor architectures would take some work–in particular, it would require technologies standardized enough, or perhaps open enough, to be interoperable in a variety of combinations. Nevertheless, much could be learned from developing relatively simple prototype systems. For example, recording technologies by themselves can report brain activity, but cannot fully attest to the causal contribution that the observed brain activity makes to a specific behavioral or clinical outcome; control technologies can input information into neural targets, but by themselves their outcomes might be difficult to interpret due to endogenous neural information and unobserved neural processing. These scientific issues can be disambiguated by rudimentary brain coprocessors, built with readily available off-the-shelf components, that use recording technologies to assess how a given neural circuit perturbation alters brain dynamics. Such explorations may begin to reveal principles governing how best to control a circuit–revealing the neural targets and control strategies that most efficaciously lead to a goal brain state or behavioral effect, and thus pointing the way to new therapeutic strategies. Miniature, implantable brain coprocessors might be able to support new kinds of personalized medicine, for example continuously adapting a neural control strategy to the goals, state, environment, and history of an individual patient–important powers, given the dynamic nature of many brain disorders.