Unlocking the secrets of the brain is a task fraught with complexity and challenge – not least due to the intricacy of the circuits involved. With advancements in the scale and precision of scientific technologies, we are increasingly equipped to explore how these components interact to produce a vast range of outputs that constitute function and disease. Here, an insight is offered into key areas in which the marriage of neuroscience and nanotechnology has revolutionized the industry. The evolution of ever more sophisticated nanomaterials culminates in network-operant functionalized agents. In turn, these materials contribute to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, including drug delivery, neuroprotection, neural regeneration, neuroimaging and neurosurgery. Further, the entrance of nanotechnology into future research arenas including optogenetics, molecular/ion sensing and monitoring, and piezoelectric effects is discussed. Finally, considerations in nanoneurotoxicity, the main barrier to clinical translation, are reviewed, and direction for future perspectives is provided.

In the current study, we examined the potential for neural stem cell (NSCs) proliferation on novel aligned touchspun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers. Electrospun PCL nanofibers with similar diameter and alignment were used as a control. Confocal microscopy images showed that NSCs grew and differentiated all over the scaffolds up to 8 days. Neurite quantification analysis revealed that the NSCs cultured on the touch-spun fibers with incorporated bovine serum albumin promoted the expression of neuron-specific class III β-tubulin after 8 days. More importantly, NSCs grown on the aligned touch-spun PCL fibers exhibited a bipolar elongation along the direction of the fiber, while NSCs cultured on the aligned electrospun PCL fibers expressed a multipolar elongation. The structural characteristics of the PCL nanofibers analyzed by Xray diffraction indicated that the degree of crystallinity and elastic modulus of the touch-spun fiber are significantly higher than those of electrospun fibers. These findings indicate that the aligned and stiff touch-spun nanofibrous scaffolds show considerable potential for nerve injury repair.

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The mid-infrared (mid-IR) anisotropic optical response of a material probes vibrational fingerprints and absorption bands sensitive to order, structure and direction dependent stimuli. Such anisotropic properties play a fundamental role in catalysis, optoelectronic, photonic, polymer and biomedical research and applications. Infrared dual-comb polarimetry (IR-DCP) is introduced as a powerful new spectroscopic method for the analysis of complex dielectric functions and anisotropic samples in the mid-IR range. IR DCP enables novel hyperspectral and time-resolved applications far beyond the technical possibilities of classical Fourier-transform IR (FTIR) approaches. The method unravels structure–spectra relations at high spectral bandwidth (100 cm–1) and short integration times of 65 µs, with previously unattainable time resolutions for spectral IR polarimetric measurements for potential studies of noncyclic and irreversible processes. The polarimetric capabilities of IR-DCP are demonstrated by investigating an anisotropic inhomogeneous free-standing nanofiber scaffold for neural tissue applications. Polarization sensitive multi-angle dual-comb transmission amplitude and absolute phase measurements (separately for ss-, pp-, ps- and sp-polarized light) allow the in-depth probing of the samples’ orientation dependent vibrational absorption properties. Mid-IR anisotropies can be quickly identified by cross-polarized IR-DCP polarimetry.