Abstract
This paper proposes a neural stimulation device integrated with a silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based photodetection circuit for the activation of neurons with light. The proposed device is comprised of a voltage divider and a current driver in which SiNWs are used as photodetector and field-effect transistors; it has the functions of detecting light, generating a stimulation signal in proportion to the light intensity, and transmitting the signal to a micro electrode. To show the applicability of the proposed neural stimulation device as a high-resolution retinal prosthesis system, a high-density neural stimulation device with a unit cell size of and a resolution of was fabricated on a flexible film with a thickness of approximately 50 μm. Its effectiveness as a retinal stimulation device was then evaluated using a unit cell in an in vitro animal experiment involving the retinal tissue of retinal Degeneration 1 (rd1) mice. Experiments wherein stimulation pulses were applied to the retinal tissues successfully demonstrate that the number of spikes in neural response signals increases in proportion to light intensity.
Highlights
Impaired connectivity or functional disorders in the neural system hinder the activation of cells or the proper transmission of information
As a method for light-based activation of neurons that can be applied to high-resolution retinal prosthesis systems by solving the above-described problems, this paper proposes a novel neural stimulation method as well as a flexible neural stimulation device integrated with a silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based photodetection circuit
This paper proposed a method for neural stimulation and a neural stimulation device integrated with an SiNW-based photodetection circuit
Summary
Impaired connectivity or functional disorders in the neural system hinder the activation of cells or the proper transmission of information. Neural stimulation methods have been extensively investigated as potential cures for a wide range of neurological disorders, such as mental disorders, dementia, motor disabilities, and visual impairment owing to retinal degeneration [1,2,3,4]. In such investigations, electrical stimulation using extracellular electrodes is extensively used as the method for activating neurons [5,6,7]. In a retinal prosthetic system, image data are acquired from external cameras connected to intraocular micro electrodes through wires [11,12,13,14] or from internal photodetectors integrated with intraocular micro electrodes [15,16,17,18]
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