Brown researchers are using a system that mimics how neurons in the brain communicate via electrical signals to create an “asynchronous wireless network” for microelectronic chips to send and receive data to and from biomedical devices. ” was developed.
In a study published March 19 in Nature Electronics, researchers detail how most commercially available spatially distributed radio frequency identification sensors, commonly abbreviated as RFID sensors, lack scalability. explained.
RFID is a wireless communication system consisting of a tag that transmits information and a reader that receives the data sent by the tag. RFID sensors are used for various purposes in the medical field, including data recording of patients and biomedical equipment. In a spatially distributed system, multiple RFID sensors placed at different locations within a device can each collect and transmit data simultaneously, providing important health information (for example, signals from the human brain). provides real-time datasets that can be collected more comprehensively. But while a small number of sensors can easily communicate with each other, scaling the system so that hundreds or thousands of spatially distributed sensors can collect understandable data is a bigger challenge, and Brown's Researchers hope they may be close to conquering it.
“Brown University's Wireless Brain-Computer Interface Group is working to build a network of thousands of neural sensors that will ultimately deliver real clinical benefits for patients with a variety of neurological and physical disorders. ,” said engineering professor Lawrence Larson. wrote the paper's authors in an email to the Herald.
However, efforts to extend these systems may run into problems when transplanted into living organisms. “Communicating this incredibly rich data from neural sensors in the brain to nearby computers is in many ways equivalent to building an entire metropolitan cell phone network at the scale of the human body. “It's a daunting task,” he added.
Dr. Larson said the paper takes advantage of the “unique properties of neural signals” that will allow researchers to extend neural sensors to clinically important levels to transmit data in an efficient and practical way. They wrote that they had developed an “innovative new approach” to do so.
“Usually, with traditional communication methods, neurons just transmit all data, regardless of what it is, whether it's important or not,” said Jihoon Lee, Ph.D., 21, a postdoctoral researcher and one of the paper's lead authors. Stated. . “So we developed a way to send only meaningful information.”
Lee added that he has developed a new method that can mimic the “binary action potentials” produced by neurons – electrical signals that are triggered when a threshold is reached. This action potential is generated only for information that the chip deems important.
“The size (of the chip) is very small,” said Ah Hyun Lee, a postdoctoral researcher and the paper's other first author. “It measures 300 micrometers by 300 micrometers, which is slightly larger than the thickness of a human hair.” Opportunities become possible.
According to Jihun Lee, the overall research process was “very easy.” “We've been thinking about this concept for a long time…it took some effort and time,” he said.
Inserting chips into humans also raises a number of ethical questions surrounding data collection and consent in biomedical implants. The research team has not yet considered clinical trials.
“This is the technology of the future, and we are creating the foundations, the preliminary stages, of the technology,” he said, adding that the technology could be tested first in other animals, such as rodents. He added that the prospects for human testing are “distant.” , far away. “
Looking to next steps, Larson added that the team “hopes to scale these devices to clinically relevant scale and technology within the next few years.”
Claire Song is a senior staff writer covering science and research. She is a freshman from California studying Applied Mathematics Biology. She likes drinking boba in her free time.