Summary: Researchers have developed a new, scalable method for recording brain activity across large areas and at depth. The technique promises advances for neuroprosthetics and brain-computer interfaces that could benefit amputees and people with movement-limiting neurological conditions.
Source: Francis Crick Institute
Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute, Stanford University and UCL have created a new technique that accurately records neural activity at scale. Tested in mice and published in Science Advances, the approach could accelerate development of neuroprosthetic devices for amputees, people with paralysis, and patients with neurodegenerative conditions such as motor neuron disease.
The study introduces a recording system that captures electrical signals from neurons across both superficial and deep brain regions at the same time. By combining modern silicon-chip electronics with ultra-thin microwires—up to 15 times thinner than a human hair—the device can penetrate deep brain structures while minimizing tissue disruption and bleeding. That low invasiveness is key to preserving neural function and obtaining reliable signals over larger volumes of brain tissue.
When implanted, active neurons generate electrical signals that are picked up by the nearby microwires and routed to a silicon chip for on-site signal processing. The chip digitizes and analyses these signals, allowing researchers to identify which brain areas are active and to separate single-neuron spikes from broader local-field potentials. In addition to passive recording, the same platform can deliver targeted electrical stimulation to specific sites, offering both readout and write-in capability for neural circuits.
Scalability is a central design feature. The device can be configured with a few hundred microwires for small animals such as mice, and scaled up to more than 100,000 wires for larger mammals. This modular, adaptable architecture links the fast pace of commercial electronics development with three-dimensional neural interfaces, helping bridge a longstanding gap between consumer-grade silicon chips and high-density neural recording hardware.
Andreas Schaefer, group leader in the neurophysiology of behaviour laboratory at the Crick and professor of neuroscience at UCL, highlights the broad potential: “This technology provides the basis for many future developments beyond basic neuroscience. It could enable systems that translate brain signals into control commands for prosthetic limbs, helping people perform actions such as shaking a hand or standing up. It could also generate electrical activity in brain regions where neurons no longer fire reliably, for example in motor neuron disease.”
Mihaly Kollo, co-lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the Crick’s neurophysiology of behaviour laboratory (also a senior research associate at UCL), explains two key challenges the work addresses. First, placing electrodes deep in the brain without causing substantial tissue damage or bleeding has been difficult; the ultra-thin microwires overcome this by minimizing their footprint. Second, neurons are arranged in complex, three-dimensional structures; the microwires can be arranged into custom 3D geometries to sample activity distributed across different layers and regions.
The authors demonstrate robust recording performance in experiments that include single-unit and local-field potential recordings from isolated retina, as well as from motor cortex and striatum in awake, behaving mice. The modular system supports different microwire types and sizes mated to large-scale microelectrode arrays—such as camera-style pixel arrays—enabling high-density, three-dimensional interfaces that take advantage of advances in commercial multiplexing, digitisation and data-acquisition hardware.
The technology described in the paper is also the foundation for a fully integrated brain-computer interface system under development by Paradromics, a company co-founded by Matthew Angle, one of the paper’s authors. Paradromics aims to develop a medical-device platform to improve the lives of people with paralysis, sensory loss, and treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions.
Source:
Francis Crick Institute
Media Contacts:
Alice Deeley – Francis Crick Institute
Image Source:
The image is credited to Andreas Schaefer.
Original Research: Open access
“Massively parallel microwire arrays integrated with CMOS chips for neural recording”. Andreas Schaefer et al., Science Advances. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aay2789.
Abstract
Massively parallel microwire arrays integrated with CMOS chips for neural recording
Multi-channel electrical recordings of neural activity are a rapidly advancing tool for revealing neural communication, computation, and for developing prosthetics. Conventional planar silicon CMOS devices have scaled quickly in electronics, but neural interfaces have lagged behind. This work presents a new strategy to marry silicon-based chips with three-dimensional microwire arrays, creating a bridge between fast-developing electronics and high-density neural interfaces. The system uses bundles of microwires mated to large-scale microelectrode arrays, delivering excellent recording performance across preparations including isolated retina and awake, moving mice. Its modular design supports multiple microwire types and sizes integrated with different pixel arrays, connecting commercial progress in multiplexing, digitisation and data acquisition with a three-dimensional neural interface.