Abstract

We propose an optoelectronic system for stimulation of living neurons. The system consists of an electronic circuit based on the FitzHugh–Nagumo model, an optical fiber, and a photoelectrical converter. We used this system for electrical stimulation of hippocampal living neurons in acute hippocampal brain slices (350-μm thick) obtained from a 20–28 days old C57BL/6 mouse or a Wistar rat. The main advantage of our system over other similar stimulators is that it contains an optical fiber for signal transmission instead of metallic wires. The fiber is placed between the electronic circuit and stimulated neurons and provides galvanic isolation from external electrical and magnetic fields. The use of the optical fiber allows avoiding electromagnetic noise and current flows which could affect metallic wires. Furthermore, it gives us the possibility to simulate “synaptic plasticity” by adaptive signal transfer through optical fiber. The proposed optoelectronic system (hybrid neural circuit) provides a very high efficiency in stimulating hippocampus neurons and can be used for restoring brain activity in particular regions or replacing brain parts (neuroprosthetics) damaged due to a trauma or neurodegenerative diseases.

Highlights

  • Neuroprosthetics is one of the most promising areas of interdisciplinary research in the field of neuroscience

  • These artifacts can be distinguished from synaptic responses, because the postsynaptic potentials have a duration of several tens of milliseconds, that is longer than the artifact duration

  • We have proposed an optoelectronic system for stimulation of living neurons, consisted of an electronic neuron generator, an optical fiber, and a photoelectrical converter

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Summary

Introduction

Neuroprosthetics is one of the most promising areas of interdisciplinary research in the field of neuroscience. One of the neuroprosthetics aims is the development of electronic devices implanted into the brain to reestablish its missing or wrong functionality due to injury or disease [1]. In this context, a brain-machine interface has been an object of intensive research in recent years, including neuroprosthetic applications [2,3,4]. Neurointerfaces and neuroprostheses are on high demand for restoring visual (artificial retina prostheses) and auditory (cochlear implants) sensory functions [7,8].

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