Three-in-One Fiber Offers Options for Brain Devices
With a new thin-as-a-human-hair flexible fiber, MIT engineers were able to deliver optical, electrical and chemical signaling to and from the brain. For example, “the researchers were able to inject viral vectors that carried genes called opsins, which sensitize neurons to light, through one of two fluid channels in the fiber. They waited for the opsins to take effect, then sent a pulse of light through the optical waveguide in the center, and recorded the resulting neuronal activity, using six electrodes to pinpoint specific reactions. All of this was done through a single flexible fiber just 200 micrometers across — comparable to the width of a human hair.” This raises the possibility of leaving brain implants in place for a longer time while prolonging their usefulness. MORE
Image Credit: Young Gyu Yoon, photo and MIT News