Scientists in recent years have
made great strides in the quest to understand the brain by using implanted
probes to explore how specific neural circuits work. Though effective, those
probes also come with their share of problems as a result of rigidity. The
inflammation they produce induces chronic recording instability and means
probes must be relocated every few days, leaving some of the central questions
of neuroscience – like how the neural circuits are reorganized during
development, learning and aging- beyond scientists’ reach. A team of
researchers from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology has
demonstrated that syringe-injectable mesh electronics can stably record neural
activity in mice for eight months or more, with none of the inflammation
produced by traditional implanted probes.
They demonstrated that the
syringe-injectable mesh electronics could be used to deliver electrical
stimulation to the brain over three months or more. The possibilities, however,
don’t end there. Because traditional rigid implanted probes are invariably
unstable, he explained, researchers and clinicians rely on decoding what they
call the “population average” – essentially taking a host of neural signals and
applying complex computational tools to determine what they mean. Using
tissue-like mesh electronics, by comparison, researchers may be able to read
signals from specific neurons over time, potentially allowing for the
development of improved brain-machine interfaces for prosthetics.
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