Wellman Steven M, Eles James R, Ludwig Kip A, Seymour John P, Michelson Nicholas J, McFadden William E, Vazquez Alberto L, Kozai Takashi D Y
Department of Bioengineering, Center for the Basis of Neural Cognition, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, NeuroTech Center, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, 208 Center for Biotechnology, 300 Technology Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15219, United States.
Department of Neurologic Surgery, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN 55905.
Adv Funct Mater. 2018 Mar 21;28(12). doi: 10.1002/adfm.201701269. Epub 2017 Jul 19.
Advancement in neurotechnologies for electrophysiology, neurochemical sensing, neuromodulation, and optogenetics are revolutionizing scientific understanding of the brain while enabling treatments, cures, and preventative measures for a variety of neurological disorders. The grand challenge in neural interface engineering is to seamlessly integrate the interface between neurobiology and engineered technology, to record from and modulate neurons over chronic timescales. However, the biological inflammatory response to implants, neural degeneration, and long-term material stability diminish the quality of interface overtime. Recent advances in functional materials have been aimed at engineering solutions for chronic neural interfaces. Yet, the development and deployment of neural interfaces designed from novel materials have introduced new challenges that have largely avoided being addressed. Many engineering efforts that solely focus on optimizing individual probe design parameters, such as softness or flexibility, downplay critical multi-dimensional interactions between different physical properties of the device that contribute to overall performance and biocompatibility. Moreover, the use of these new materials present substantial new difficulties that must be addressed before regulatory approval for use in human patients will be achievable. In this review, the interdependence of different electrode components are highlighted to demonstrate the current materials-based challenges facing the field of neural interface engineering.
用于电生理学、神经化学传感、神经调节和光遗传学的神经技术进展正在彻底改变对大脑的科学理解，同时为各种神经系统疾病带来治疗方法、治愈手段和预防措施。神经接口工程的重大挑战在于无缝整合神经生物学与工程技术之间的接口，以便在长期时间尺度上记录神经元并对其进行调节。然而，植入物引发的生物炎症反应、神经退化以及长期的材料稳定性会随着时间的推移降低接口质量。功能材料的最新进展旨在为慢性神经接口提供工程解决方案。然而，由新型材料设计的神经接口的开发和应用带来了一些新挑战，而这些挑战在很大程度上尚未得到解决。许多工程努力仅专注于优化单个探头设计参数，如柔软度或柔韧性，却忽视了对设备整体性能和生物相容性有贡献的不同物理特性之间关键的多维相互作用。此外，在获得用于人类患者的监管批准之前，这些新材料的使用带来了必须解决的重大新难题。在这篇综述中，强调了不同电极组件之间的相互依存关系，以展示神经接口工程领域目前基于材料所面临的挑战。
