New neural interface promises a lifetime in the brain

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Researchers have demonstrated the ability to implant an ultrathin, flexible neural interface with thousands of electrodes into the brain with a projected lifetime of more than six years.

Protected from hostile biological processes by less than a micrometre of material, the achievement is said to be an important step toward creating high-resolution neural interfaces that can persist within a human body for an entire lifetime.

Neural implant programmed and charged remotely

The results, available online in Science Translational Medicine, were published by researchers led by Jonathan Viventi, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University; John Rogers, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University; and Bijan Pesaran, professor of neural science at New York University.

"Trying to get these sensors to work in the brain is like tossing your foldable, flexible smartphone in the ocean and expecting it to work for 70 years," Viventi said in a statement. "Except we're making devices that are much thinner and much more flexible than the phones currently on the market. That's the challenge."

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