The creation of implants for brain machine interfaces

在神经科学研究领域，将多电极阵列植入大脑正变得越来越普遍。这些研究中的许多都受到了最近神经假肢研究激增的影响。这些阵列主要被植入大脑表面。然而，从大脑深处的信号中提取的运动和认知变量也被证明对神经假肢有效。因此，开发可植入任意深度的多电极阵列对这项研究至关重要。这些阵列必须足够小，以尽量减少皮质损伤，足够强，以承受由于大脑深部插入所遇到的力，并且必须保持多年的活性。在这里，我们开发了一个研究项目来设计和制造符合这些标准的新型硅阵列。为了做到这一点，我们将加强硅探针，以增加其抗拉强度，而不增加其直径。我们还将在探针中引入纳米孔，并用特定的蛋白质填充它们，以促进探针周围的神经生长。这项多学科研究将资助2名博士生和2名硕士生。此外，这些阵列将为神经科学界提供一种测量深部脑功能的新方法，这可能会导致更广泛的临床应用。

Implantation of multi-electrode arrays into the brain is becoming increasingly more prevalent within the neuroscience research community. Many of these studies have been influenced by the recent surge in neural prosthetic research. These arrays are predominantly implanted on the surface of the brain. However, motor and cognitive variables extracted from signals deep in the brain have also been shown to be effective for neural prosthetics. Thus, development of multi-electrode arrays that can be implanted at arbitrary depths is vital to this research. These arrays must be small enough to minimize cortical damage, strong enough to withstand forces encountered due to deep brain insertion, and must remain active for years. Here we develop a research program to design and fabricate novel silicon arrays that meet these criteria. To do this, we will reinforce the silicon probes in order to increase their tensile strength without increasing their diameter. We will also introduce nanoporous holes into the probes and fill them with specific proteins that can encourage neural growth around the probes. This multidisciplinary research will provide funding for 2 PhD students and 2 MSc students. Moreover, these arrays will afford the neuroscience community a new way to measure deep brain function that may lead to a wider range of clinical applications.