Neurograins networked for improved brain-computer interfaces

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), emerging assistive devices that could help people with brain or spinal injuries to move or communicate, depend on implantable sensors that record electrical signals in the brain and use those signals to drive external devices like computers or robotic prosthetics.

Most current BCI systems use one or two sensors to sample up to a few hundred neurons, but neuroscientists are said to be interested in systems that gather data from much larger groups of brain cells.

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The new neurograins, each about the size of a grain of salt, could overcome this current limitation by independently recording the electrical pulses made by firing neurons and sending the signals wirelessly to a central hub, which coordinates and processes the signals.

In a study published in Nature Electronics, the research team – including experts from Brown University, Baylor University, the University of California at San Diego and Qualcomm - demonstrated the use of nearly 50 neurograins to record neural activity in a rodent.