Injectable Mesh Nanoelectronics for Brain Mapping and Modulation
Abstract
Seamless and stable integration of electronic devices with the brain could open up powerful opportunities in areas ranging from fundamental neuroscience to implants for enhancing human performance. The overall goal of this research is to develop and exploit a new paradigm for electrical mapping and modulation of brain activity, syringe-injectable mesh nanoelectronics. This fundamentally new form of electronics, which features tissue-like mechanical properties and connectivity, can be injected into and integrated with brain tissue with minimal invasiveness, enabling the unique capability to record from and stimulate the same neurons and neural circuits over long periods of time. First, we aim to substantially advance the capabilities of the injectable mesh nanoelectronics, by incorporating nanowire-based transistor devices in the mesh electronics structure, and then optimizing their performance for chronic recording and electric- field-based stimulation of neuronal activity in vivo, exploring the possibility of internalizing them into neurons via biochemical functionalization, and enabling multisite, highly multiplexed recording in freely-behaving animals. Second, we propose to leverage these capabilities to investigate the evolution of neural circuits that play a role in spatial learning and memory. To achieve this we will first map brain activity at the single-neuron level in spatial learning and memory experiments, exploiting multisite mesh nanoelectronics probes to record simultaneously both sensory signals and the well-defined place maps in the hippocampus. We will then build on this foundation by investigating modulation of learning and memory through stimulation of local neural circuits. The results from these studies will advance significantly our fundamental knowledge of how to build seamless n noelectronic interfaces to the brain and, through modelstudies of spatial learning and memory.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 19, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501810469
Entities
People
- Charles M. Lieber
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- President and Fellows of Harvard College
- United States Air Force