Sam Emmanuel John: “Minimally Invasive Endovascular Neural Interface”

July 12, 2016  17:30 〜 18:30

CiNet 1F Conference Room

Sam Emmanuel John

Research Fellow
NeuroEngineering Laboratory
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Vascular Bionics Laboratory – Department of Medicine
The University of Melbourne

Host : Shinji Nishimoto (PI)

Abstract:

In recent work, we demonstrated the feasibility of a minimally invasive endovascular neural interface that can record brain activity from within a cortical vein. The endovascular neural interface was fabricated on intracranial stents similar to those used for clot removal. The endovascular neural interface was delivered into a superficial cortical vein overlying the motor cortex in sheep using contrast enhanced angiography and co-axial catheterization.

Impedance changes, synchrotron imaging and histological analysis showed that the endovascular neural interface incorporates into the blood vessel wall within 14 days after implantation. There was minimal reduction of the blood vessel lumen post-implantation and the vessel lumen remained open for the duration of the study (190 days). The endovascular array was able to record cortical potential with signal quality similar to an epidural array and marginally inferior to a subdural array.

We show that an endovascular neural interface offers a method for safe implantation and chronic neural recordings. The endovascular neural interface may have several applications in neuroscience and bionics including deep brain stimulation, epilepsy monitoring and brain computer interfaces.