Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Biotechnol. 2015 Mar;33(3):277-84. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3093. Epub 2015 Jan 19.
Brain function depends on simultaneous electrical, chemical and mechanical signaling at the cellular level. This multiplicity has confounded efforts to simultaneously measure or modulate these diverse signals in vivo. Here we present fiber probes that allow for simultaneous optical stimulation, neural recording and drug delivery in behaving mice with high resolution. These fibers are fabricated from polymers by means of a thermal drawing process that allows for the integration of multiple materials and interrogation modalities into neural probes. Mechanical, electrical, optical and microfluidic measurements revealed high flexibility and functionality of the probes under bending deformation. Long-term in vivo recordings, optogenetic stimulation, drug perturbation and analysis of tissue response confirmed that our probes can form stable brain-machine interfaces for at least 2 months. We expect that our multifunctional fibers will permit more detailed manipulation and analysis of neural circuits deep in the brain of behaving animals than achievable before.
大脑功能依赖于细胞水平的同时电、化学和机械信号传递。这种多样性使得同时测量或调节体内这些不同信号的努力变得复杂。在这里，我们提出了纤维探针，允许在行为小鼠中进行高分辨率的同时光学刺激、神经记录和药物输送。这些纤维通过热拉伸工艺由聚合物制成，该工艺允许将多种材料和询问模式集成到神经探针中。机械、电气、光学和微流控测量显示，探针在弯曲变形下具有高灵活性和功能。长期的体内记录、光遗传学刺激、药物干扰以及组织反应分析证实，我们的探针至少可以在 2 个月内形成稳定的脑机接口。我们预计，我们的多功能纤维将允许对行为动物大脑深处的神经回路进行更详细的操作和分析，这是以前无法实现的。
