Bidirectional Hybrid Electrical-Acoustic Minimally Invasive Implants for Large-Scale Neural Recording and Modulation

项目总结： 通过大规模监测和调节大脑活动来动态绘制复杂的大脑回路 增强我们对大脑功能的理解，如感觉、思维、情感和行动。这 知识最终将有助于更好地治疗和预防神经疾病。实时与 大脑还有可能增强我们的感知、运动和认知能力，以及恢复 由于受伤或疾病而丧失的感觉和运动功能。尽管经过了几十年的研究和开发 大脑的神经技术，不幸的是，用高强度监测和调节大脑活动 大尺度时空分辨率仍然是21世纪面临的重大挑战之一。 目前，神经调节可以通过不同的方式实现，包括药理学和化学法。 方法缺乏特异性，对电、电磁、光学和声学方法具有较高的 专一性。同样，可以用不同的间接(通过血流动力学成像)来监测神经活动 改变)或具有各种时空分辨率和空间的直接(电生理记录)方法 覆盖范围。不幸的是，现有的用于脑接口的非侵入性工具存在时空差的问题 决议。可植入的方法是极具侵入性的，需要穿透设备(例如电极、光学 纤维)进入脑实质，有疤痕组织形成、长期损害和生物反应， 随着时间的推移会导致植入失败。更重要的是，目前的植入方法只能应用于 人类大脑中约850亿个神经元中的数百个神经元。 通过开发一种新的双向神经网络，我们提出了一种大规模神经网络接口的新范式。 接口平台，其特征在于分布有微创、混合电声植入物网络 在大脑表面。这些植入物将1)小(毫米级)、轻、自由浮动、可寻址和 无线，2)同时提供高密度电生理记录(UECOG)和超声波 几微米和毫秒的高时空分辨率刺激，3)刺激不同的 超声束通过薄膜阵列聚焦的脑实质分布区域 超声波换能器(不穿透脑实质)和4)声学引导 通过对种植体下神经结构的成像记录和超声刺激。

Project Summary: Dynamic mapping of complex brain circuits by monitoring and modulating brain activity at large scale will enhance our understanding of brain functions, such as sensation, thought, emotion, and action. This knowledge will ultimately help to better treat and prevent neurological disorders. Real-time interfacing with the brain also has the potential to enhance our perceptual, motor, and cognitive capabilities, as well as to restore sensory and motor functions lost through injuries or diseases. Despite decades of research and development of neurotechnologies for the brain, unfortunately monitoring and modulation of brain activity with high spatiotemporal resolution at large scale is still one of the grand challenges in the 21st century. Currently, neuromodulation can be achieved with different modalities from pharmacological and chemical methods, which lack specificity, to electrical, electromagnetic, optical, and acoustic methods with higher specificity. Similarly, neural activity can be monitored with different indirect (through imaging hemodynamic changes) or direct (electrophysiology recording) methods with various spatiotemporal resolution and spatial coverage. Unfortunately, available non-invasive tools for brain interfacing suffer from poor spatiotemporal resolution. Implantable methods are extremely invasive, requiring penetration of devices (e.g. electrodes, optic fibers) into the brain parenchyma with scar tissue formation, long-term damage, and biological responses that can result in implantation failure over time. More importantly, current implantable methods can only be applied to hundreds of neurons out of ~85 billion neurons in the human brain. We propose a new paradigm for large-scale neural interfacing by developing a new bidirectional neural- interface platform in that a network of minimally invasive, hybrid electrical-acoustic implants are distributed over the brain surface. These implants will 1) be small (millimeter scale), light, free-floating, addressable, and wireless, 2) simultaneously provide high-density electrophysiology recording (µECOG) and ultrasonic stimulation with high spatiotemporal resolution of several micrometers and milliseconds, 3) stimulate different distributed regions of the brain parenchyma through focusing an ultrasonic beam by an array of thin-film ultrasonic transducers (without penetration into the brain parenchyma), and 4) acoustically guide both µECOG recording and ultrasonic stimulation by imaging neural structure under the implant.