Acute human brain responses to intracortical microelectrode arrays: challenges and future prospects.

Eduardo Fernã¡Ndez,Richard A Normann,Ignacio Aranda,Julio Albisua,Arantxa Alfaro,Bradley Greger,Cristina Soto-Sã¡Nchez,Paul A House,Carlos Botella

doi:10.3389/fneng.2014.00024

Abstract

The emerging field of neuroprosthetics is focused on the development of new therapeutic interventions that will be able to restore some lost neural function by selective electrical stimulation or by harnessing activity recorded from populations of neurons. As more and more patients benefit from these approaches, the interest in neural interfaces has grown significantly and a new generation of penetrating microelectrode arrays are providing unprecedented access to the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS). These microelectrodes have active tip dimensions that are similar in size to neurons and because they penetrate the nervous system, they provide selective access to these cells (within a few microns). However, the very long-term viability of chronically implanted microelectrodes and the capability of recording the same spiking activity over long time periods still remain to be established and confirmed in human studies. Here we review the main responses to acute implantation of microelectrode arrays, and emphasize that it will become essential to control the neural tissue damage induced by these intracortical microelectrodes in order to achieve the high clinical potentials accompanying this technology.

Highlights

Since 1990, the field of neuroprosthetics has grown at an ever increasing rate
We review the main responses to acute implantation of microelectrode arrays, and emphasize that it will become essential to control the neural tissue damage induced by these intracortical microelectrodes in order to achieve the high clinical potentials accompanying this technology
As more and more patients have benefited from this approach, the interest in neural interfaces has grown significantly and a new generation of penetrating microelectrode arrays are providing unprecedented access to the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS)

Summary

Introduction

We review the main responses to acute implantation of microelectrode arrays, and emphasize that it will become essential to control the neural tissue damage induced by these intracortical microelectrodes in order to achieve the high clinical potentials accompanying this technology. Current research is pursuing noninvasive techniques to acquire signals from the human brain, important scientific and clinical information has been gained from in vivo experiments with microelectrode arrays able to record or stimulate the nervous system with the aim of improving or replacing motor or sensory abilities that have been lost due to disease or injury.

Results

Conclusion