Biophotonics: Design of Novel Implantable Brain Imaging Devices

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0423076SmithThe goal of this project is the design of a novel implantable brain imaging device called an IOS sensor. Based on a microscale integrated array of intermingled GaAs NIR emitters and detectors, this device will be optimized to image the intrinsic optical signal (IOS), a diffuse optical reflectance correlate of brain electrical activity rich in detail about sensory and motor information processing in mammalian cortex. The neurobiological utility of IOS imaging is already very well established, but all previous IOS imaging has used bulky, benchtop-scale instruments that require subjects to be immobilized and, almost always, anesthetized. Because of its small size, the IOS sensor will allow unprecedented imaging of cortical activity patterns in unanaesthetized and freely behaving subjects. Applications of the implantable IOS sensor will include neuroscience research, prosthetics for neurological injury patients, and drug discovery.