Ultrathin, Foldable Sensors Probe Secrets of the Brain


New ultra-thin, flexible sensors can deliver unprecedented views of the brain while dramatically reducing the invasiveness of brain implant devices.

Using the new sensors, researchers have already recorded previously unknown details of sleep patterns and brain activity during epileptic seizures in animals. They hope the new technology will help control seizures and sleep disorders and lead to new understandings of learning, vision, memory, depression, chronic pain and other neurological disorders. Ultimately, they hope to apply the new technology to other implantable devices such as cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, cochlear and retinal implants and motor prosthetic systems.

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The researchers' findings were published in the December issue of Nature Neuroscience. Lead authors are Brian Litt of the University of Pennsylvania and Jonathan Viventi, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Polytechnic Institute of New York University and at the Center for Neural Science at New York University. John Rogers of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Dae-Hyeong Kim of Seoul National University, in South Korea are also part of the team that conceived and built the array.

Read the complete article at livescience.com