Subdural Soft Electrocorticography (ECoG) Array Implantation and Long-Term Cortical Recording in Minipigs

Neurological impairments and diseases can be diagnosed or treated using electrocorticography (ECoG) arrays. In drug-resistant epilepsy, these help delineate the epileptic region to resect. In long-term applications such as brain-computer interfaces, these epicortical electrodes are used to record the movement intention of the brain, to control the robotic limbs of paralyzed patients. However, current stiff electrode grids do not answer the need for high-resolution brain recordings and long-term biointegration. Recently, conformable electrode arrays have been proposed to achieve long-term implant stability with high performance. However, preclinical studies for these new implant technologies are needed to validate their long-term functionality and safety profile for their translation to human patients. In this context, porcine models are routinely employed in developing medical devices due to their large organ sizes and easy animal handling. However, only a few brain applications are described in the literature, mostly due to surgery limitations and integration of the implant system on a living animal.

Here, we report the method for long-term implantation (6 months) and evaluation of soft ECoG arrays in the minipig model. The study first presents the implant system, consisting of a soft microfabricated electrode array integrated with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible polymeric transdermal port that houses instrumentation connectors for electrophysiology recordings. Then, the study describes the surgical procedure, from subdural implantation to animal recovery. We focus on the auditory cortex as an example target area where evoked potentials are induced by acoustic stimulation. We finally describe a data acquisition sequence that includes MRI of the whole brain, implant electrochemical characterization, intraoperative and freely moving electrophysiology, and immunohistochemistry staining of the extracted brains.

This model can be used to investigate the safety and function of novel design of cortical prostheses; mandatory preclinical study to envision translation to human patients.