Research Shows New Means of Recording Brain Activity

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia recently developed and tested a new high-resolution, ultra-thin device that can record brain activity from the cortical surface without the use of penetrating electrodes. The device could make possible a whole new generation of brain-computer interfaces for treating neurological and psychiatric illness and research. Research results were published in Nature Neuroscience.

“The new technology we have created can conform to the brain’s unique geometry, and records and maps activity at resolutions that have not been possible before,” says Brian Litt, MD, the study’s senior author and associate professor of neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine and Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. “Using this device, we can explore the brain networks underlying normal function and disease with much more precision, and it’s likely to change our understanding of memory, vision, hearing, and many other normal functions and diseases.” Implantable brain devices could be inserted in less invasive operations, Litt continues, and, by mapping circuits involved in epilepsy, paralysis, depression and other “network brain disorders” in sufficient detail, this could allow doctors to intervene to make patients better. For more information about this research, click here to read the full release.