An Optoelectronics Device to Write-In and Read-Out Activity in Brain Circuits

用于写入和读出脑电路活动的光电装置

• 批准号: 1264816
• 负责人: Arto Nurmikko
• 金额: $ 31万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1264816&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Optoelectronics; Device; Write; Read; Out

1264816Nurmikko, ArtoThe proposed research aims to contribute to the emerging field of neurotechnology by providing a new class of brain "write-in"/ "read-out" devices with unique attributes for bidirectional communication with neural circuits. The project aims to have an impact on both basic neuroscience while providing an important technology piece to future prospects for treating severely neurologically impaired individuals via electronic communications with brain circuits. This is a development project that lies at the very intersection of biomedical engineering and health sciences. More specifically, its aim is to create a new generation of devices that enables the combination of spatially and temporally specific stimulation of and recording from brain circuits in vivo mobile animal models, to advance the understanding of brain function at a fundamental level on one hand, while extrapolating squarely at possible applications e.g. to cases of neurological injury on the other. Extracting information about functional connectivity and performance of neural circuits by electrical recording by arrays of sensing microelectrodes is a well-established and powerful technique. For example, by acquiring resolution at a single neuron level from cortical circuits by implanted multielectrode arrays with real-time decoding the intention of a brain to execute motor action has recently enabled a human tetraplegic patient, with neural signal pathways from the brain to spinal cord inoperative, to control a robotic arm and hand by "thought". Supported further by several powerful demonstrations in non-human primates of brain control, a grand challenge to future neural prostheses is to "close-the-loop" for cortical control of assistive devices, for instance by providing a proxy by brain stimulation for lost sensory capability such as touch. Stimulation by electrical means has been traditionally used to excite the brain across multiple spatial scales for both research and has today specific therapeutic use. Importantly, however, the ability to specifically access well-targeted neural circuits for both excitation and inhibition has been now opened by techniques of "optogenetics", a pioneering new approach in basic and applied brain science and neurotechnology. The optical method offers a much more direct and less ambiguous stimulation of brain circuits to inform brain circuits. To reach this goal, a multielement biomedical implant device is proposed where up to 100 microscale elements are integrally arrayed for dual use - in simultaneously delivering light to and electrically reading out neural circuit dynamics ("100 points of light"). Meeting both fundamental physical and practical physiological challenges, a specific class of so-called wide bandgap crystalline semiconductors is exploited - which have the unusual combinatorial attributes of optical transparency and high electrical conductivity. The proposed device-driven research program leverages directly from expertise in the PIs laboratory where work on development of new neural recording methods (such as by wireless implants) intersects with other research strands where wide-bandgap semiconductors are studied and microfabricated to different types of light-emitting devices. In culmination of the research, the new optical stimulation/electrical read-out capability will be tested and employed in vivo in mobile animal models for fundamental brain science and neurotechnology development purposes.

1264816 Nurmikko，Arto拟议的研究旨在通过提供一类新的大脑“写入”/“读出”设备，具有与神经回路双向通信的独特属性，为新兴的神经技术领域做出贡献。 该项目旨在对基础神经科学产生影响，同时为未来通过与大脑电路的电子通信治疗严重神经功能受损的个人提供重要的技术。这是一个发展项目，位于生物医学工程和健康科学的交叉点。更具体地说，其目的是创建新一代的装置，该装置使得能够在体内移动的动物模型中结合脑回路的空间和时间特异性刺激和记录，以一方面在基本水平上推进对脑功能的理解，而另一方面在可能的应用中进行直接外推，例如神经损伤的情况。通过传感微电极阵列的电记录来提取关于神经回路的功能连接和性能的信息是一种成熟且强大的技术。例如，通过植入的多电极阵列实时解码大脑执行运动动作的意图，通过从皮层电路获取单个神经元水平的分辨率，最近已经使人类四肢瘫痪患者能够通过“思想”控制机器人手臂和手，其中神经信号通路从大脑到脊髓束。在非人类灵长类动物的大脑控制的几个强有力的演示的进一步支持下，未来神经假体的一个巨大挑战是为辅助设备的皮层控制“闭环”，例如通过大脑刺激提供失去的感觉能力（如触摸）的代理。 通过电手段的刺激传统上用于在多个空间尺度上激发大脑，用于研究和今天的特定治疗用途。然而，重要的是，通过“光遗传学”技术，一种基础和应用脑科学和神经技术的开创性新方法，现在已经打开了专门访问用于兴奋和抑制的目标明确的神经回路的能力。 光学方法提供了一种更直接、更明确的大脑回路刺激，以告知大脑回路。 为了达到这一目标，提出了一种多元件生物医学植入装置，其中多达100个微尺度元件被整体排列用于双重用途-同时将光传递到神经回路动力学和电阅读神经回路动力学（“100个光点”）。满足基本的物理和实际的生理挑战，一个特定的所谓的宽带隙晶体半导体类被开发-它具有光学透明性和高电导率的不寻常的组合属性。拟议的设备驱动的研究计划直接利用了PI实验室的专业知识，在该实验室中，开发新的神经记录方法（例如通过无线植入）的工作与其他研究链交叉，在这些研究链中，研究宽带隙半导体并将其微制造成不同类型的发光设备。在研究的高潮，新的光刺激/电读出能力将在体内进行测试，并在移动的动物模型中用于基础脑科学和神经技术开发目的。