Competing interests

K.B. and K.F. are presently employees of GlaxoSmithKline, as indicated in the affiliations.

V.G. is a co-founder of Circuit Therapeutics and holds related intellectual property and stock (less than 5%). At the time of writing, V.G. receives no research funding, royalties, or consultant fees from any for-profit organization.

P.A. is sponsored by Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

W.M.G. receives funding through GlaxoSmithKline's Bioelectronics R&D programme and research support from Medtronic, Stryker and Ethicon. He holds equity positions in NDI Medical, SPR Therapeutics and Deep Brain Innovations, and is a paid consultant for Autonomic Technologies, Circuit Therapeutics, NeuroAccess Technologies, NeuroTronik, NDI Medical, SetPoint Medical and St. Jude Medical.

V.P. is a paid Consultant to GlaxoSmithKline, Bioelectronics R&D and receives funding through GlaxoSmithKline's Bioelectronics R&D programme.

B.M. is a paid consultant to GlaxoSmithKline.

P.P. receives funding through GlaxoSmithKline's Bioelectronics R&D programme and is a co-founder of Enterowave, Enterx, gIQ. He has several patents in the field of electrical stimulation in various stages of being licensed to different companies.