Engineering of Stretchable Neural Interfaces Using Liquid Metals for Stable Electrical Communication and Adaptive Stiffness Transformation

项目摘要 在使用具有可植入多电极阵列的可植入神经探针进行医学研究数十年后， 这些植入物的确切失效机制仍有待完全理解。但越来越多的 研究表明，最小化软生物组织和生物电子之间的失配 设备将是实现长期，准确，实时和大规模神经记录的关键， 没有炎症免疫反应的刺激。为了减轻在硬质合金中发现的机械不匹配， 金属或硅探针，柔性和可拉伸的软神经探针已经在 近年然而，当前软探针上的生物电子学在它们的生物电子学特性的稳定性方面具有根本限制。 在生理条件下的电化学阻抗，导致电子之间的折衷 性能和机械匹配。长期目标是创造下一代脑机 脑机接口（BCI），用于生物学、神经科学、生物医学工程和 药本申请的总体目标是阐明设计规则，以使电子组织 接口具有可靠的电化学阻抗、可调的机械刚度，使用的方法 结合了两种独特的材料类型-无毒液体金属和生物相容性弹性体。中央 假设是低熔点无毒的镓基液体金属和固有的 可拉伸的聚合物将协同地增强电和机械界面性能， 生物环境，并为多功能集成系统提供统一的接口， 智能这项研究的成功完成将导致在方法上的重大进展 液态金属软神经探针拟议研究的基本原理是， 一种真正可拉伸和可靠的探针-组织界面的成功开发为神经科学家提供了一种 前所未有的平台技术，设计特定的神经探针来研究基础生命科学 以前无法探索的问题，如“大脑中的神经回路是如何形成的”， 发展”，其中需要高密度高分辨率可拉伸神经探针作为哺乳动物 大脑的大小可能会增长100%以上，并增加大量的新组织和产生的新功能。 该研究具有创新性，因为它既不同于传统研究，也不同于现有研究。 神经科学仪器，并介绍了下一代神经探针系统的新框架 使用低熔点金属和软聚合物。拟议的研究是变革性的，因为它将 使“看不见的”脑机接口（BCI）能够提供对潜在的 大脑回路形成和功能的物理学。最终，这些知识为我们铺平了道路， 更好地了解大脑和我们自己，为寻找智力的起源提供了新的机会， 邀请新的解决方案，用于开发治疗脑部疾病的创新疗法。

PROJECT SUMMARY After decades of using implantable neural probes with implantable multielectrode arrays for medical studies, the exact failure mechanisms of these implants still remain to be fully understood. However, more and more studies have shown that minimizing the mismatches between the soft biological tissue and bioelectronic devices would be a key to achieving long-term, accurate, real-time, and large-scale neural recordings and stimulations without inflammatory immune responses. To mitigate the mechanical mismatch found in hard metal or silicon probes, soft neural probes that are both flexible and stretchable have been developed in recent years. However, bioelectronics on current soft probes has fundamental limits in the stability of their electrochemical impedance under physiological conditions, resulting in a compromise between electronic performance and mechanical matching. The long-term goal is to create a next-generation brain-computer interface (BCI) for advancement in biology, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and regenerative medicine. The overall objective of this application is to elucidate the design rules to enable electronic-tissue interfaces with reliable electrochemical impedance, tunable mechanical stiffness, using an approach that combines two unique material types – nontoxic liquid metals and biocompatible elastomers. The central hypothesis is that a combination of low-melting-point nontoxic gallium-based liquid metals and intrinsically stretchable polymers will synergistically enhance the electrical, and mechanical interfacial properties in the biological environment and provide unified interfaces for multifunctional integrated systems with embodied intelligence. The successful completion of this research will result in significant advances in the methodology of liquid-metal-embedded soft neural probes. The rationale underlying the proposed research is that the successful development of a truly stretchable and reliable probe-tissue interface offers neuroscientists an unprecedented platform technology to design specific neural probes to investigate fundamental life science questions that were unexplorable before, such as “how neuronal circuits are formed during brain development” where high-density high-resolution stretchable neural probes are needed as a mammalian brain may grow more than 100% in size and add vast amounts of new tissue and resulting new functions. The proposed research is innovative, because it departs from both the conventional and existing neuroscientific instrumentations and introduces a new framework for next-generation neural probe systems using low-melting-point metals and soft polymers. The proposed research is transformative because it will enable “invisible” brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to provide fundamental insights into the underlying physics of brain circuitry formation and functionality. Ultimately, such knowledge paves the way for us to understand the brain and ourselves better, offers new opportunities for finding the origin of intelligence, and invites new solutions for the development of innovative therapies to treat brain disorders.