Researchers at Stanford
University have developed a new device for connecting the brain directly to
silicon-based technologies. While brain-machine interface devices already exist
and are used for prosthetics, disease treatment and brain research this latest
device can record more data while being less intrusive than existing options. The
device contains a bundle of microwires, with each wire less than half the width
of the thinnest human hair. These thin wires can be gently inserted into the
brain and connected on the outside directly to a silicon chip that records the
electrical brain signals passing by each wire like making a movie of neural
electrical activity.
Current versions of the device
include hundreds of microwires but future versions could contain thousands. The
researchers tested their brain-machine interface on isolated retinal cells from
rats and in the brains of living mice. In both cases, they successfully
obtained meaningful signals across the array's hundreds of channels. Ongoing
research will further determine how long the device can remain in the brain and
what these signals can reveal. The team is especially interested in what the
signals can tell them about learning. The researchers are also working on
applications in prosthetics, particularly speech assistance.
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