An ultrasonic interrogator is placed under the skull, while independent neural dust sensing nodes are sprinkled throughout the cortex.
(Credit: University of California, Berkeley)
A variety of imaging advancements in recent years is making it possible to study the brain in real time — techniques such as positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. These methods are giving us insights into the way the brain behaves, but they’re not without shortcomings, ranging from their invasive nature to less-than-stellar image resolution.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are investigating a completely novel approach to studying the brain in real time: smart dust.
That’s right. Dust.
In a paper titled Neural Dust: An Ultrasonic, Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain-Machine Interfaces, the researchers unveiled an approach that surely will have Orwell enthusiasts’ skin crawling. The Berkeley scientists report that by sprinkling tiny electronic sensors the size of dust particles — so-called neural dust — onto the … [Read more]
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