Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Multi-electrode arrays serve to record electrical signals of many neurons in the brain simultaneously. For most of the past century, electrodes that penetrate brain tissue have had exactly one shape: a straight needle. Certainly this was a good starting choice at the time, but there is no reason to think that a straight line would be the optimal shape in all Neuroscience applications. Here I argue that, in fact, a wide variety of curved shapes is equally practical: all possible helices. I discuss the manufacture and manipulation of such devices, and illustrate a few use cases where they will likely outperform conventional needles. With some collective action from the research community, curved arrays could be manufactured and distributed at low cost.
Author: Meister, Markus
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3183588807