Curved Micro-Electrode Arrays

Markus Meister

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arXiv · 2107.13532

Curved Micro-Electrode Arrays

Markus Meister

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Abstract

Multi-electrode arrays serve to record electrical signals of many neurons in the brain simultaneously. For most of the past century, electrodes that penetrate brain tissue have had exactly one shape: a straight needle. Certainly this was a good starting choice at the time, but there is no reason to think that a straight line would be the optimal shape in all Neuroscience applications. Here I argue that, in fact, a wide variety of curved shapes is equally practical: all possible helices. I discuss the manufacture and manipulation of such devices, and illustrate a few use cases where they will likely outperform conventional needles. With some collective action from the research community, curved arrays could be manufactured and distributed at low cost.

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Markus Meister. 2021-07-26. Curved Micro-Electrode Arrays. https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13532

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