Fully implantable wireless multi-electrode ECoG monitoring system

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Approximately 50 million people worldwide are epileptic. Epilepsy is the third most common neurological disorder, and ranks second in terms of costs to society. Approximately 15% of epilepsy patients undergo surgical resection of the source of the seizures in the brain. Preoperative assessments are done to localize the focus, and to ensure that the resection can be accomplished without producing neurological deficits. These conventional procedures involve implanting an electrocorticography (ECoG) electrode array over the cortex for several weeks. During this time wires from the ECoG electrodes have to be connected to bench-top electrophysiological equipment. As a result, patients have to be tethered making this approach cumbersome and unsafe. Also, the patients skull has to be opened during the entire time of the procedure which increases the risk of infection. The proposed fully implantable wireless ECoG system will allow patients to move freely and eliminate the risk of infection or reimplantation while under observation for epilepsy focus localization and brain function assessment. Motor disabilities such as paralysis due to chronic stroke, spinal cord injury, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are also prevalent and costly to society. Patients with sensory-motor disabilities can be treated or significantly improve quality of their life by using a fully implanted wireless ECoG brain-computer interface (BCI). We propose to develop a 256-electrode fully integrated wireless ECoG monitoring system which will revolutionize clinical neuromonitoring. We will develop an implantable microchip that performs programmable neural signal recording and neural stimulation and sends recorded neural data wirelessly through skin to a computer. Power and control commands are also sent to the chip wirelessly. We will integrate the chip with surface and depth electrode arrays to deliver a novel capability to remotely record and stimulate at 256 sites in the brain. We will translate the results to Canadian neurologists and neurosurgeons, neuromodulation companies, epilepsy and BCI communities, and to the many patients who may benefit from this technology.