Electrode arrays for reading signals directly from the brain help researchers study neurological diseases and now let severely disabled people communicate. Using conventional materials it is difficult to space transistors with high density on a neural probe to sample as many neurons as possible at the same time. Doing so introduces noise, which masks the actual signal and leads to poor results.
Now a group of European researchers has developed a brain-reading array made of graphene transistors that can record different brain waves, including spontaneous slow waves, visually evoked signals, and brain activity that signals an onset of an epileptic seizure.
So called solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFETs) have been proposed in the past to allow high density recordings, but finding a good material to properly build them has been challenging. Graphene, consisting of a flat sheet of carbon only one atom thick, turns out to produce low noise, have high biocompatibility, and generate a strong signal when sampling the brain.
The researchers believe their technology will lead to a better understanding of the brain and how to manipulate it to help people with all kinds of neurological conditions.
Study in journal 2D Materials: Mapping brain activity with flexible graphene micro-transistors…
Via: Graphene Flagship…
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