Is this the usual hype surrounding this subject for decades or have we finally reached the point of broadly functional brain machine interfaces? I am still skeptical!
"A novel brain-computer interface developed by a New York-based company called Synchron was just used to help a paralyzed patient send messages using their Apple device for the very first time. ...
The Synchron interface, however, is not implanted directly into the brain. While it requires some surgery, the device is inserted just into the top of the brain’s motor cortex via blood vessels, rather than inserting electrodes straight into neural tissue. This is a much less invasive and safer procedure ... making it much more affordable. The Synchron implants, which have a mesh-like design and are about the size of a AAA battery, are meant to be permanent and four patients have been using them for more than a year with no adverse effects reported thus far.
The downside is that the device is not as capable of reading complex brainwaves, but it’s good enough. ..."
The Synchron interface, however, is not implanted directly into the brain. While it requires some surgery, the device is inserted just into the top of the brain’s motor cortex via blood vessels, rather than inserting electrodes straight into neural tissue. This is a much less invasive and safer procedure ... making it much more affordable. The Synchron implants, which have a mesh-like design and are about the size of a AAA battery, are meant to be permanent and four patients have been using them for more than a year with no adverse effects reported thus far.
The downside is that the device is not as capable of reading complex brainwaves, but it’s good enough. ..."
From the abstract:
"Objective
Biomedical instrumentation and clinical systems for electrophysiology rely on electrodes and wires for sensing and transmission of bioelectric signals. However, this electronic approach constrains bandwidth, signal conditioning circuit designs, and the number of channels in invasive or miniature devices. This paper demonstrates an alternative approach using light to sense and transmit the electrophysiological signals.
Approach
We develop a sensing, passive, fluorophore-free optrode based on the birefringence property of liquid crystals (LCs) operating at the microscale.
Main results
We show that these optrodes can have the appropriate linearity (µ ± s.d.: 99.4 ± 0.5%, n = 11 devices), relative responsivity (µ ± s.d.: 57 ± 12%V−1, n = 5 devices), and bandwidth (µ ± s.d.: 11.1 ± 0.7 kHz, n = 7 devices) for transducing electrophysiology signals into the optical domain. We report capture of rabbit cardiac sinoatrial electrograms and stimulus-evoked compound action potentials from the rabbit sciatic nerve. We also demonstrate miniaturisation potential by fabricating multi-optrode arrays, by developing a process that automatically matches each transducer element area with that of its corresponding biological interface.
Significance
Our method of employing LCs to convert bioelectric signals into the optical domain will pave the way for the deployment of high-bandwidth optical telecommunications techniques in ultra-miniature clinical diagnostic and research laboratory neural and cardiac interfaces."
Biomedical instrumentation and clinical systems for electrophysiology rely on electrodes and wires for sensing and transmission of bioelectric signals. However, this electronic approach constrains bandwidth, signal conditioning circuit designs, and the number of channels in invasive or miniature devices. This paper demonstrates an alternative approach using light to sense and transmit the electrophysiological signals.
Approach
We develop a sensing, passive, fluorophore-free optrode based on the birefringence property of liquid crystals (LCs) operating at the microscale.
Main results
We show that these optrodes can have the appropriate linearity (µ ± s.d.: 99.4 ± 0.5%, n = 11 devices), relative responsivity (µ ± s.d.: 57 ± 12%V−1, n = 5 devices), and bandwidth (µ ± s.d.: 11.1 ± 0.7 kHz, n = 7 devices) for transducing electrophysiology signals into the optical domain. We report capture of rabbit cardiac sinoatrial electrograms and stimulus-evoked compound action potentials from the rabbit sciatic nerve. We also demonstrate miniaturisation potential by fabricating multi-optrode arrays, by developing a process that automatically matches each transducer element area with that of its corresponding biological interface.
Significance
Our method of employing LCs to convert bioelectric signals into the optical domain will pave the way for the deployment of high-bandwidth optical telecommunications techniques in ultra-miniature clinical diagnostic and research laboratory neural and cardiac interfaces."
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