Ferro Marc D, Proctor Christopher M, Gonzalez Alexander, Jayabal Sriram, Zhao Eric, Gagnon Maxwell, Slézia Andrea, Pas Jolien, Dijk Gerwin, Donahue Mary J, Williamson Adam, Raymond Jennifer, Malliaras George G, Giocomo Lisa, Melosh Nicholas A
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Electrical Engineering Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FA, United Kingdom.
AIP Adv. 2024 Aug 7;14(8):085109. doi: 10.1063/5.0216979. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Scalable electronic brain implants with long-term stability and low biological perturbation are crucial technologies for high-quality brain-machine interfaces that can seamlessly access delicate and hard-to-reach regions of the brain. Here, we created "NeuroRoots," a biomimetic multi-channel implant with similar dimensions (7 m wide and 1.5 m thick), mechanical compliance, and spatial distribution as axons in the brain. Unlike planar shank implants, these devices consist of a number of individual electrode "roots," each tendril independent from the other. A simple microscale delivery approach based on commercially available apparatus minimally perturbs existing neural architectures during surgery. NeuroRoots enables high density single unit recording from the cerebellum and . NeuroRoots also reliably recorded action potentials in various brain regions for at least 7 weeks during behavioral experiments in freely-moving rats, without adjustment of electrode position. This minimally invasive axon-like implant design is an important step toward improving the integration and stability of brain-machine interfacing.
具有长期稳定性和低生物干扰的可扩展电子脑植入物，是高质量脑机接口的关键技术，这种接口能够无缝接入大脑中精细且难以触及的区域。在此，我们创造了“神经根”，这是一种仿生多通道植入物，其尺寸（宽7微米、厚1.5微米）、机械顺应性和空间分布与大脑中的轴突相似。与平面杆状植入物不同，这些装置由多个独立的电极“根”组成，每个卷须相互独立。一种基于商用设备的简单微尺度递送方法在手术过程中对现有神经结构的干扰最小。“神经根”能够从小脑中进行高密度单单元记录。在自由活动大鼠的行为实验中，“神经根”还能在至少7周的时间里可靠地记录各个脑区的动作电位，且无需调整电极位置。这种微创的轴突样植入物设计是朝着改善脑机接口的整合与稳定性迈出的重要一步。
