IDBR Collaborative Research: Wireless Integrated Devices for Brain Monitoring and Stimulation

该奖项支持凯斯西方研究大学和伊利诺伊州立大学的PI之间的合作努力，以开发新的仪器来支持神经生物学研究。在清醒的实验室动物中监测神经活动已被证明是研究大脑如何最终控制行为的有力工具。推动这种方法的是微传感器的最新进展，这些微传感器可以在行为发生时非常快速地在微观尺度上探测大脑功能。然而，植入微传感器的神经监测仍然特别具有挑战性，因为大多数可用的测量系统受到大尺寸，高功率要求以及动物和记录设备之间的有线连接的阻碍。这些技术限制将通过开发下一代超小型、低功耗无线设备来克服，这些设备用于神经化学和神经电监测，以及使用电刺激对自由行为的动物进行神经调节。国家的最先进的工程方法，称为超大规模集成电路（VLSI）和互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）技术将被用来制造拟议的设备。这种制造过程将产生多通道、多功能、无线设备，其尺寸和重量适合植入，使动物免于暴露、笨重的仪器和电缆，这些仪器和电缆会改变行为，在运动过程中产生噪声伪影，并限制实验设计。通过制造策略，功耗也将大大降低，从而能够在操作期间使用微型电池作为电源。一旦构建，组装和包装成长期植入形式，并进行测试，这些设备将用于动物实验，以研究多巴胺在动机行为中的作用。这种重要的大脑神经递质与对奖励或预测奖励的线索的反应有关，并且与改变与动机有关的大脑回路的长期功能有关。通过克服现有仪器的技术限制，这些新的微型无线设备将推进用于研究大脑行为关系的主要动物模型的神经生物学研究，并将这一研究范围扩展到以前限制研究的较小动物。这些设备最终将在更大的神经科学社区的需求驱动下实现商业可行性。通过这些传感器的传播以及与用户的合作，传感器平台可以不断发展以满足新兴的研究需求。此外，该项目不仅将在研究人员各自的实验室培训科学和工程方面的本科生和研究生，而且还将促进跨学科培训，因为两个实验室将广泛而密切地合作开发和应用新仪器。在更广泛的意义上，该奖项将导致神经生物学家和工程师之间建立新的工作关系，以支持研究和教育。

This award supports a collaborative effort between PIs at Case Western Research University and Illinois State University to develop new instrumentation in support of neurobiology research. Monitoring neural activity in awake laboratory animals has proven to be a powerful tool for investigating how the brain ultimately controls behavior. Driving this approach are recent advances in microsensors for probing brain function very quickly and on microscopic scales as the behavior occurs. However, neuromonitoring at implanted microsensors remains particularly challenging, as the majority of available measurement systems are hampered by large size, high power requirements, and wired connections between animal and recording equipment. These technological limitations will be overcome by developing the next generation of ultra-small, low-power wireless devices for neurochemical and neuroelectrical monitoring and for neuromodulation using electrical stimulation in freely behaving animals. State-of-the-art engineering methods called very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) and complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies will be employed to manufacture the proposed devices. This fabrication process will result in multichannel, multifunctional, wireless devices whose size and weight are suitable for implantation, freeing the animal from exposed, bulky instruments and cables that alter behavior, generate noise artifacts during movement, and limit experimental design. Power consumption will be dramatically reduced as well by the fabrication strategy, enabling the use of miniature batteries as a power source during operation. Once constructed, assembled and packaged into a chronically implantable form, and tested, these devices will be used in animal experiments to investigate the role of dopamine in motivated behavior. This important brain neurotransmitter has been implicated in responding to rewards or the cues that predict rewards, and in altering the long-term functioning of brain circuits involved in motivation. By overcoming technical limitations of existing instrumentation, these new miniature wireless devices for will advance neurobiological investigations in the primary animal models used for the study of brain-behavior relationships and will extend this line of research to smaller animals whose size has previously limited inquiry. Such devices will ultimately be commercially viable driven by the needs of the larger neuroscience community. Through dissemination of these sensors and collaboration with users the sensor platform can evolve to meet emerging research needs. Additionally, this project will not only train undergraduate and graduate students in both science and engineering in the respective laboratories of the investigators, but it will also foster interdisciplinary training as the two laboratories will extensively and closely work together to develop and apply the new instrumentation. In a broader vein, the award will lead to establishing new working relationship between neurobiologists and engineers in support of both research and education.