UW-Madison researchers developed see-through brain implant sensors, which will lead to more effective monitoring and research of brain activity, according to a university news release.
The implant’s transparency is significant because it will not interfere with brain images, whereas older implants showed up in sensory imaging, blocking parts of the picture.
“One of the holy grails of neural implant technology is that we’d really like to have an implant device that doesn’t interfere with any of the traditional imaging diagnostics,” Justin Williams, a professor of biomedical engineering and neurological surgery, said in the release.
The sensors will help in the conduction of neuromodulation therapies, which are used to help control symptoms of diseases such as hypertension, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
The implants are made of graphene, a flexible yet durable material growing in popularity, according to the release.
“It’s got to be very thin and robust to survive in the body,” Zhenqiang Ma, a UW-Madison professor of electrical and computer engineering, said in the release. “It is soft and flexible, and a good trade-off between transparency, strength and conductivity.”
This advance corresponds to President Obama’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative, which was announced in April 2013 with the goal of revolutionizing the understanding of the human brain.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is in the process of patenting the technology, with additional funding stemming from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
