With this we could listen in to the signals being sent between neurons as neuroplasticity occurs. That could then be analyzed and made into a consistently repeatable process, rather than the current knowledge of neuroplasticity. Which is, exercise, but we don't know how many times or what actually triggers neuroplasticity to take place.
http://mcgovern.mit.edu/news/news/tiny-fibers-open-new-windows-into-the-brain/
For the first time ever, a single flexible fiber no bigger than a
human hair has successfully delivered a combination of optical,
electrical, and chemical signals back and forth into the brain, putting
into practice an idea first proposed two years ago. With some tweaking
to further improve its biocompatibility, the new approach could provide a
dramatically improved way to learn about the functions and
interconnections of different brain regions.
The new fibers were developed through a collaboration among material
scientists, chemists, biologists, and other specialists. The results are
reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, in a paper by
Seongjun Park, an MIT graduate student; Polina Anikeeva, the Class of
1942 Career Development Professor in the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering; Yoel Fink, a professor in the departments of Materials
Science and Engineering, and Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science; Gloria Choi,
the Samuel A. Goldblith Career Development Professor in the Department
of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and 10 others at MIT and elsewhere.
The fibers are designed to mimic the softness and flexibility of
brain tissue. This could make it possible to leave implants in place and
have them retain their functions over much longer periods than is
currently possible with typical stiff, metallic fibers, thus enabling
much more extensive data collection. For example, in tests with lab
mice, the researchers were able to inject viral vectors that carried
genes called opsins, which sensitize neurons to light, through one of
two fluid channels in the fiber. They waited for the opsins to take
effect, then sent a pulse of light through the optical waveguide in the
center, and recorded the resulting neuronal activity, using six
electrodes to pinpoint specific reactions. All of this was done through a
single flexible fiber just 200 micrometers across — comparable to the
width of a human hair.
Previous research efforts in neuroscience have generally relied on
separate devices: needles to inject viral vectors for optogenetics,
optical fibers for light delivery, and arrays of electrodes for
recording, adding a great deal of complication and the need for tricky
alignments among the different devices. Getting that alignment right in
practice was “somewhat probabilistic,” Anikeeva says. “We said, wouldn’t
it be nice if we had a device that could just do it all.”
After years of effort, that’s what the team has now successfully
demonstrated. “It can deliver the virus [containing the opsins] straight
to the cell, and then stimulate the response and record the activity —
and [the fiber] is sufficiently small and biocompatible so it can be
kept in for a long time,” Anikeeva says.
Since each fiber is so small, “potentially, we could use many of them
to observe different regions of activity,” she says. In their initial
tests, the researchers placed probes in two different brain regions at
once, varying which regions they used from one experiment to the next,
and measuring how long it took for responses to travel between them.
The key ingredient that made this multifunctional fiber possible was
the development of conductive “wires” that maintained the needed
flexibility while also carrying electrical signals well. After much
work, the team was able to engineer a composite of conductive
polyethylene doped with graphite flakes. The polyethylene was initially
formed into layers, sprinkled with graphite flakes, then compressed;
then another pair of layers was added and compressed, and then another,
and so on. A member of the team, Benjamin Grena, a recent graduate in
materials science and engineering, referred to it as making “mille
feuille,” (literally, “a thousand leaves,” the French name for a
Napoleon pastry). That method increased the conductivity of the polymer
by a factor of four or five, Park says. “That allowed us to reduce the
size of the electrodes by the same amount.”
One immediate question that could be addressed through such fibers is
that of exactly how long it takes for the neurons to become
light-sensitized after injection of the genetic material. Such
determinations could only be made by crude approximations before, but
now could be pinpointed more clearly, the team says. The specific
sensitizing agent used in their initial tests turned out to produce
effects after about 11 days.
The team aims to reduce the width of the fibers further, to make
their properties even closer to those of the neural tissue. “The next
engineering challenge is to use material that is even softer, to really
match” the adjacent tissue, Park says. Already, though, dozens of
research teams around the world have been requesting samples of the new
fibers to test in their own research.
The research team included members of MIT’s Research Laboratory of
Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Chemical
Engineering, and Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as
researchers at Tohuku University in Japan and Virginia Polytechnic
Institute. It was supported by the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke, the National Science Foundation, the MIT Center
for Materials Science and Engineering, the Center for Sensorimotor
Neural Engineering, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 28,983 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke.DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER, BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.
What this blog is for:
My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.
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