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In a 2015 rat experiment, researchers inserted tiny rolled-up mesh electrodes into the brain by freezing them until they were stiff enough to place. The probes softened after insertion, recorded activity in the barrel cortex, and remained there for five weeks. The results showed a way to make very flexible neural probes, but they do not prove that electrodes can record without scarring: the longer-term evidence for that claim was described as unpublished, and most sensors in the reported experiment yielded no useful signal.
How do rolled-up neural electrodes work?
Charles Lieber and colleagues made the experimental probes from metal interconnects encased in a mesh of SU-8, a photosensitive epoxy. They patterned the materials on a silicon wafer using planar lithography and engineered strain into the polymer so the mesh would curl when released.
To release a probe, the researchers etched away a sacrificial nickel layer beneath it. Freed from the wafer, the mesh rolled into a tight hollow cylinder, with its sensors on the outside. Chemistry World described the resulting probes as up to seven orders of magnitude less stiff than conventional probes; that comparison is the 2015 report’s account of the work, not a general measurement of all neural electrodes.
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How were the probes inserted into the rat brain?
The mesh was too flexible to push into brain tissue in its curled state. The researchers used liquid nitrogen to freeze the probes, temporarily making them rigid enough to insert into the barrel cortex of an anesthetized rat. After placement, they melted and softened in the tissue.
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This temporary stiffening addressed an engineering trade-off: a probe must be stiff enough to implant, but a highly compliant structure may move more gently with soft tissue after placement. The experiment demonstrated that insertion approach in a rat; it did not establish a human implantation method.
What did the electrodes record?
The team stimulated one of the rat’s whiskers and used the electrodes to identify activity in the associated region of the barrel cortex. This linked a sensory input to activity at the corresponding cortical location, demonstrating neural recording with the rolled mesh probe.
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The result had a significant limitation. Neuroscientist György Buzsáki noted in the 2015 report that most of the 13 sensors did not produce a useful signal because they were not close enough to a neuron. As a result, only a very small number of neurons were monitored. The demonstration showed recording was possible, not that the array reliably captured activity across all its sensors.
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Did the probes avoid scarring?
The phrase “without scarring” goes beyond what the reported experiment establishes. Chemistry World said the probes remained in the rat for five weeks, became well integrated with the tissue, and had neurons growing into their hollow cores. Those observations support tissue integration, but they do not by themselves prove that scar tissue never formed or that it could not affect recording.
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The report attributed a stronger, longer-term observation to unpublished further work by Lieber: consistent signals from the same neuron over longer periods. Lieber interpreted that result as evidence that scar tissue was not forming around the probes in a way that interfered with neurons. Because this evidence was unpublished in the account, it should be treated as a researcher’s interpretation of further work, not as a published finding established by the five-week experiment.
Were these electrodes tested in people?
No. The reported test was in an anesthetized rat. The probes were experimental research devices, not a treatment, a commercially available implant, or a demonstrated human brain-computer interface. In the 2015 report, neurotechnologist Leigh Hochberg described the electrodes as likely to become useful for studying learning, memory, movement, and perception; that was an assessment of their potential, not evidence of subsequent clinical validation.
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How does the 2023 EPFL electrode relate?
EPFL reported a separate deployable cortical electrode array in May 2023. Its prototype used spiraled arms and an eversion mechanism to pass through a small skull opening and deploy over the brain’s cortex. Flexible gold electrodes were mounted on compliant elastomer, and EPFL reported testing the prototype in a mini-pig. The institution said its spin-off Neurosoft Bioelectronics would lead clinical translation.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThis is a different design from the 2015 rolled-up probe: the older mesh curled into a hollow cylinder and was inserted into brain tissue, whereas the EPFL device was designed to deploy over the cortex. The available reports do not provide a head-to-head comparison, and the later project does not show that the 2015 probe became clinically ready or commercially available.
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Sources and what they establish
- Chemistry World’s 6 October 2015 report by Tim Wogan describes the rat experiment, the insertion method, the five-week observation, the sensor-yield caveat, and the unpublished longer-term claim. It identifies the underlying study by C. Xie et al. in Nature Materials, DOI 10.1038/nmat4427.
- EPFL’s 11 May 2023 report describes the distinct deployable cortical array and its mini-pig testing.
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