CENTER FOR NEURAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

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The major thrust of this center proposal is to allow investigators in neurobiology to establish a richer communication with the nervous system through the use of multichannel thin-film devices constructed on silicon substrates. The ultimate goal is to provide the ability to observe and influence the activity of dozens of cells and later be able to deduce their neural circuit and geometric relationships. There is a significant service and technology transfer component to this center. The Center will educate investigators on the technology, its use and the design methods required for fabrication of custom devices. The Center will distribute systems to users which have been prepared in the laboratories of the University of Michigan. There already exists a rich catalog of devices which have been successfully used in neurobiology laboratories world-wide. A symposium will be hosted to heighten the awareness of future possibilities for these devices and encourage the engagement of more centers in research on development and use of this technology. There are four core research projects. Two will concentrate on extending the technology from its present focus on electrical communication using a hardwired interconnect system, to chemical agents and electromagnetic communication. The remaining two projects are dedicated to extracting as much information from the experimental tissue as possible. Systems science studies will be carried out which will seek to decode the relationships among cells using signal processing techniques on the potentials recorded by arrays of sensors. Logical and statistical schemes will be employed to deduce the circuit relationships among cells while three dimensional analysis of the tissue will be employed to imply the exact geometric relationships among cells being recorded.