Brown develops wireless brain transmission technology

THE TECHNOLOGY was created to allow neuroscience research that was not possible using cabled connections, and obtained meaningful signals from animal models as they slept, woke, and exercised.
THE TECHNOLOGY was created to allow neuroscience research that was not possible using cabled connections, and obtained meaningful signals from animal models as they slept, woke, and exercised.

PROVIDENCE – Brown University researchers have developed a technology that allows the wireless transmission of data from the brain to computers.

The technology was created to allow neuroscience research that was not possible using cabled connections, and obtained meaningful signals from animal models as they slept, woke and exercised.

“We view this as a platform device for tapping into the richness of electrical signals from the brain among animal models where their neural circuit activity reflects entirely volitional and naturalistic behavior,” said Arto Nurmikko, professor of engineering and physics affiliated with the Brown Institute for Brain Science and the paper’s senior and corresponding author. “This enables new types of neuroscience experiments with vast amounts of brain data wirelessly and continuously streamed from brain microcircuits.”

Through a small port embedded in a subject’s skull, the transmitter connects to a tiny implanted electrode array that senses the activity of scores of neurons. The wireless transmitter is compatible with a variety of types of brain sensors, Nurmikko said.

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A study about the research recently appeared in Neuron.
Co-author of the study David Borton, assistant professor of engineering at Brown, said that the technology is teaching researchers much about the intricacies of how people move their bodies.

“In this study, we were able to observe motor cortical dynamics during locomotion, yielding insight into how the brain computes output commands sent to the legs to control walking,” Borton said.

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