The development has been highlighted on the cover of Nature Materials (march 2019)The use of electrodes on an exposed brain area in order to record the electric activity of the cerebral cortex for scientific purposes is growing. There are several technologies being developed and competing to be the first to reach the market as a brain-computer interfaces and neural prostheses. Nevertheless, none of them fulfills all the requirements for becoming the ideal interface.
One of the most promising materials for neural interfacing is graphene: it is biocompatible, flexible, it has a low dimensionality and has good electronic properties.
Scientists of the Biomedical Applications group (GAB LAb), which is led by Rosa Villa, at the Institut of Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona (IMB-CNM) of the CSIC, and of the group led by José A. Garrido at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), have developed and patented a graphene device for detecting infraslow brain activity, at frequencies below 0,1 Hz, and over big areas. This is a breaking sensibility, which gives accesss to infraslow electrophysiological activity that couldn’t be recorded until now with current technologies.
The development has been successfully tested for detecting brain activity and the results have been highlighted on the cover of Nature Materials.
It is the result of the efforts of a multidisciplinary scientific team. Besides of the IMB-CNM and the ICN2, scientists from the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), the Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER-BBN), the Institut de Ciéncies Fotòniques (ICFO) and from the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), have also participated in the development.
The authors of this patent and technological offer are the scientists Anton Guimerà Brunet, Eduard Masvidal-Codina and Rosa Villa, from the IMB-CNM-CSIC; José A. Garrido, a ICREA scientist at the ICN2; Xavi Illa, from the IMB-CNM and the CIBER-BBN; and Mavi Sánchez-Vives, a ICREA scientist at the IDIBAPS.
It has a breaking sensibility, which gives accesss to infraslow electrophysiological activity that couldn’t be recorded until now with current technologies
The electrode is made of graphene, gold and polymer. This material combination has made possible to obtain a flexible device which perfectly adapts to the brain surface without damaging it. The device records and amplifies the electric activity of the brain before transmitting it to the receiver with a very low noise level.
In the case of the brain, most of the activity occurs at less than 0.1 Hz, commonly referred to as very slow, ultraslow or infraslow activity, and until now it was unnoticed by current technologies. Besides, these low frequencies give essential information about different events, such as the beginning and the ending of epileptic crisis, therefore it is expected that the device will help in the research of this disorder. Also, the device can be applied to monitor a drug effects on the brain.
The technology can be applied also to record activity of other biological systems, like peripheral nerves, heart, blood system or spinal cord, among others. Due to its flexibility, the device can be adapted to the geometry of any biological structure.
Nature Materials (2018). Published: 31 December 2018. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-018-0249-4
Jed A. Hartings. How slow can you go? Nature Materials (2018). Published: 31 December 2018. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-018-0272-5
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