An amazing possibility for the field of neurology is being able to read signals from and stimulate individual nerves in living animals and humans, and for long periods of time. Studies about the brain could be phenomenally productive using such technology and therapies for all kinds of condition would be forthcoming. But current tungsten-based hard needles are too large and intrusive, and can’t be left in the brain for long periods of time. Other technologies don’t tend to last very long either, losing their ability to interface well with brain cells.
Carbon nanotube yarn embedded into the vagus nerve of a rat. Credit: McCallum et al, Sci. Rep. 20171
At Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, researchers developed microscopic wires, made like a yarn out of flexible carbon nanotubes. They’re 1/100 of the width of human hair, and seem to be very biocompatible, as they were used to record the electrical activity of major nerves within the autonomic nervous system in the brains of living rats for months at a time.
The wires were wrapped around tungsten needles and inserted with the help of the needles. The needles could then be retracted, leaving the wires in place.
The wires were made by pulling carbon nanotubes into a spinner that forms them into yarn, in a process very similar to how clothing fabric is made
Study in Scientific Reports: Chronic interfacing with the autonomic nervous system using carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn electrodes…
Via: NIBIB…