An Optoelectronics Device to Write-In and Read-Out Activity in Brain Circuits

[1264816] nurmikko, arr .这项研究旨在通过提供一种具有独特属性的新型大脑“写入”/“读出”设备，与神经回路进行双向通信，从而为新兴的神经技术领域做出贡献。该项目旨在对基础神经科学产生影响，同时为未来通过与大脑回路的电子通信治疗严重神经损伤的个人提供重要的技术。这是一个处于生物医学工程和健康科学交叉点的开发项目。更具体地说，它的目标是创造新一代的设备，能够结合空间和时间特异性刺激和记录大脑回路在体内移动动物模型，一方面在基本水平上推进对大脑功能的理解，同时在另一方面直接推断可能的应用，例如神经损伤病例。通过传感微电极阵列的电记录提取神经回路的功能连接和性能信息是一项成熟而强大的技术。例如，通过植入多电极阵列，实时解码大脑执行运动动作的意图，从皮层回路获得单个神经元水平的分辨率，最近使一个从大脑到脊髓的神经信号通路瘫痪的人类四肢瘫痪患者能够通过“思想”控制机械手臂和手。在非人类灵长类动物的大脑控制方面的一些强有力的证明进一步支持了这一点，未来神经假肢面临的一个重大挑战是“闭环”皮质控制辅助设备，例如通过大脑刺激代替失去的感觉能力，如触觉。传统上，电刺激方法被用于刺激大脑在多个空间尺度上的研究，今天也有特定的治疗用途。然而，重要的是，“光遗传学”技术已经开启了特异性地访问目标明确的神经回路以实现兴奋和抑制的能力，这是基础和应用脑科学和神经技术的一种开创性的新方法。光学方法为大脑回路提供了更直接、更少模糊的刺激，从而为大脑回路提供信息。为了实现这一目标，提出了一种多元素生物医学植入装置，其中多达100个微尺度的元素被集成在一起，用于双重用途——同时向神经回路传递光并电读取神经回路动力学（“100点光”）。为了满足基本的物理和实际的生理挑战，一种特殊的所谓的宽带隙晶体半导体被开发出来——它具有不同寻常的光学透明度和高导电性的组合属性。拟议的设备驱动研究计划直接利用了pi实验室的专业知识，该实验室致力于开发新的神经记录方法（如无线植入物），与其他研究领域交叉，研究宽带隙半导体并将其微加工成不同类型的发光器件。在研究的高潮阶段，新的光刺激/电读出能力将在移动动物模型中进行体内测试和应用，用于基础脑科学和神经技术的发展目的。

1264816Nurmikko, ArtoThe proposed research aims to contribute to the emerging field of neurotechnology by providing a new class of brain "write-in"/ "read-out" devices with unique attributes for bidirectional communication with neural circuits. The project aims to have an impact on both basic neuroscience while providing an important technology piece to future prospects for treating severely neurologically impaired individuals via electronic communications with brain circuits. This is a development project that lies at the very intersection of biomedical engineering and health sciences. More specifically, its aim is to create a new generation of devices that enables the combination of spatially and temporally specific stimulation of and recording from brain circuits in vivo mobile animal models, to advance the understanding of brain function at a fundamental level on one hand, while extrapolating squarely at possible applications e.g. to cases of neurological injury on the other. Extracting information about functional connectivity and performance of neural circuits by electrical recording by arrays of sensing microelectrodes is a well-established and powerful technique. For example, by acquiring resolution at a single neuron level from cortical circuits by implanted multielectrode arrays with real-time decoding the intention of a brain to execute motor action has recently enabled a human tetraplegic patient, with neural signal pathways from the brain to spinal cord inoperative, to control a robotic arm and hand by "thought". Supported further by several powerful demonstrations in non-human primates of brain control, a grand challenge to future neural prostheses is to "close-the-loop" for cortical control of assistive devices, for instance by providing a proxy by brain stimulation for lost sensory capability such as touch. Stimulation by electrical means has been traditionally used to excite the brain across multiple spatial scales for both research and has today specific therapeutic use. Importantly, however, the ability to specifically access well-targeted neural circuits for both excitation and inhibition has been now opened by techniques of "optogenetics", a pioneering new approach in basic and applied brain science and neurotechnology. The optical method offers a much more direct and less ambiguous stimulation of brain circuits to inform brain circuits. To reach this goal, a multielement biomedical implant device is proposed where up to 100 microscale elements are integrally arrayed for dual use - in simultaneously delivering light to and electrically reading out neural circuit dynamics ("100 points of light"). Meeting both fundamental physical and practical physiological challenges, a specific class of so-called wide bandgap crystalline semiconductors is exploited - which have the unusual combinatorial attributes of optical transparency and high electrical conductivity. The proposed device-driven research program leverages directly from expertise in the PIs laboratory where work on development of new neural recording methods (such as by wireless implants) intersects with other research strands where wide-bandgap semiconductors are studied and microfabricated to different types of light-emitting devices. In culmination of the research, the new optical stimulation/electrical read-out capability will be tested and employed in vivo in mobile animal models for fundamental brain science and neurotechnology development purposes.