Cornell's salt-grain-sized implant records brain activity wirelessly for a year in mice
The MOTE device, about 300 microns long, is powered by light and sends neural signals back as infrared pulses.
Cornell University researchers have built MOTE, a wireless neural implant just 300 by 70 microns, smaller than a grain of salt. Red and infrared light shone through tissue powers it, and it sends back brain activity encoded in infrared pulses. Reporting in Nature Electronics, the team says MOTE recorded single-neuron spikes and broader synaptic activity in the brains of mice for more than a year, with the animals staying healthy.
Ultra-small, battery-free implants could one day allow many independent sensors spread across the brain. The work so far is in animals.
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