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这项拟议的研究旨在为新兴的神经技术领域做出贡献，提供一种具有独特属性的新类型的大脑“写入”/“读出”设备，用于与神经电路进行双向通信。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回路的电子通信治疗严重神经学受损的个人提供重要的技术支持。这是一个位于生物医学工程和健康科学的交叉点上的发展项目。更具体地说，它的目标是创造新一代设备，能够在活体动物模型中结合空间和时间上特定的脑回路刺激和记录，一方面在基础水平上促进对大脑功能的理解，另一方面直接推断可能的应用，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有关神经电路的功能连通性和性能的信息是一项成熟而强大的技术。例如，通过植入多电极阵列并实时解码大脑执行运动动作的意图，从皮质电路获得单个神经元水平的分辨率，最近使一名从大脑到脊髓的神经信号通路失效的人类四肢瘫痪患者能够通过“思想”控制机械臂和手。在非人类灵长类动物中关于大脑控制的几个强有力的演示进一步支持了未来神经假体的一个重大挑战是对辅助设备的皮质控制进行“闭环系统”，例如通过大脑刺激为丧失的感觉能力(如触摸)提供代理。在这两项研究中，电刺激传统上被用来在多个空间尺度上刺激大脑，今天具有特殊的治疗用途。然而，重要的是，通过基础和应用脑科学和神经技术中的一种开创性的新方法--“光遗传学”技术，现在已经打开了针对兴奋和抑制的特定靶向神经回路的能力。光学方法提供了一种更直接、更不含糊的大脑回路刺激方法，以告知大脑回路。为了实现这一目标，提出了一种多元素生物医学植入装置，其中多达100个微尺度元件集成排列，用于同时向神经电路动力学发射光线并以电子方式读出(100个光点)。为了应对基本的物理和实际的生理挑战，开发了一类特殊的所谓宽禁带晶体半导体--这种半导体具有光学透明度和高电导率的不同寻常的组合属性。拟议的器件驱动研究计划直接利用了PIS实验室的专业知识，在该实验室，开发新的神经记录方法(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。作为这项研究的高潮，新的光刺激/电读出能力将在活体动物模型中进行测试，并用于基础脑科学和神经技术开发目的。