electrochemical-roughening-thin-film-platinum-macro

Electrochemical Roughening of Thin-Film Platinum Macro and Microelectrodes

This protocol demonstrates a method for electrochemical roughening of thin-film platinum electrodes without preferential dissolution at grain boundaries ...

chronic-implantation-of-multiple-flexible-polymer-electrode-arrays

Chronic Implantation of Multiple Flexible Polymer Electrode Arrays

Simultaneous recordings from large populations of individual neurons across distributed brain regions over months to years will enable new avenues of ...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Neuralink Corp.

The brain is a massive neuronal network, organized into anatomically distributed sub-circuits, with functionally relevant activity occurring at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Current methods to monitor neural activity, however, lack the necessary conjunction of anatomical spatial coverage, temporal resolution, and long-term stability to measure this distributed activity. Here we introduce a large-scale, multi-site, extracellular recording platform that integrates polymer electrodes with a modular stacking headstage design supporting up to 1,024 recording channels in freely behaving rats. This system can support months-long recordings from hundreds of well-isolated units across multiple brain regions. Moreover, these recordings are stable enough to track large numbers of single units for over a week. This platform enables large-scale electrophysiological interrogation of the fast dynamics and long-timescale evolution of anatomically distributed circuits, and thereby provides a new tool for understanding brain activity.

High-Density, Long-Lasting, and Multi-region Electrophysiological Recordings Using Polymer Electrode Arrays.

Electrode arrays for chronic implantation in the brain are a critical technology in both neuroscience and medicine. Recently, flexible, thin-film polymer electrode arrays have shown promise in facilitating stable, single-unit recordings spanning months in rats. While array flexibility enhances integration with neural tissue, it also requires removal of the dura mater, the tough membrane surrounding the brain, and temporary bracing to penetrate the brain parenchyma. Durotomy increases brain swelling, vascular damage, and surgical time. Insertion using a bracing shuttle results in additional vascular damage and brain compression, which increase with device diameter; while a higher-diameter shuttle will have a higher critical load and more likely penetrate dura, it will damage more brain parenchyma and vasculature. One way to penetrate the intact dura and limit tissue compression without increasing shuttle diameter is to reduce the force required for insertion by sharpening the shuttle tip.

Supin Chen

Engineering Directorate,
Center for Micro- and Nanotechnology

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Electrochemical Roughening of Thin-Film Platinum Macro and Microelectrodes

Chronic Implantation of Multiple Flexible Polymer Electrode Arrays

Supin Chen

Engineering Directorate,Center for Micro- and Nanotechnology

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Electrochemical Roughening of Thin-Film Platinum Macro and Microelectrodes

Chronic Implantation of Multiple Flexible Polymer Electrode Arrays

Engineering Directorate,
Center for Micro- and Nanotechnology