Communications of the ACM
'missing Link' Found in the Development of Bioelectronic Medicines
New research led by the University of Southampton has demonstrated that a nanoscale device called a memristor could be the missing link in the development of implants that use electrical signals from the brain to help treat medical conditions.
Credit: University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
Researchers from the University of Southampton in the U.K. have demonstrated that memristors could be the missing link in the development of implants that use electrical signals from the brain to help treat medical conditions.
The researchers showed memristors could provide real-time processing of neurological signals leading to efficient data compression and the potential to develop more precise and affordable neuroprosthetics and bioelectronic medicines.
The researchers developed a nanoscale Memristive Integrating Sensor (MIS) into which they fed a series of voltage-time samples, which replicated neurological electrical activity. The metal-oxide MIS was able to encode and compress neurological spiking activity recorded with multi-electrode arrays.
The researchers say this approach addressed previous bandwidth restraints and also was very power efficient, as the energy needed for each recording channel was up to 100 times lower when compared to current best practices.
"We are thrilled that we succeeded in demonstrating that these emerging nanoscale devices, despite being rather simple in architecture, possess ultra-rich dynamics that can be harnessed beyond the obvious memory applications to address the fundamental constraints in bandwidth and power that currently prohibit scaling neural interfaces beyond 1,000 recording channels," says Southampton professor Themis Prodromakis.
From University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
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