A wearable platform for closed-loop stimulation and recording of single-neuron and local field potential activity in freely-moving humans

Abstract

Advancements in technologies that can record and stimulate deep-brain activity in humans have led to impactful discoveries within the field of neuroscience and contributed to the development of novel therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Further progress, however, has been hindered by device limitations in that recording of single-neuron activity during freely-moving behaviors in humans has not been possible. Additionally, implantable neurostimulation devices, currently approved for human use, have limited stimulation programmability and lack full-duplex bi-directional capability. Here, we report a wearable bi-directional closed-loop neuromodulation system (Neuro-stack) that allows for the recording of single-neuron and local field potential activity during ambulatory behavior in humans. Together with a highly flexible and customizable stimulation capability, the Neuro-stack provides an opportunity to develop improved responsive neuromodulation therapies, investigation of brain function during naturalistic behaviors in humans, and consequently, the bridging of decades of neuroscientific findings across species.

Consistent spectro-spatial features of human ECoG successfully decode naturalistic behavioral states

“…The spectro-spatial components of different affective behaviors are similar to results obtained from the task-based method, mainly showing moodselective activations of low frequency and high γ clusters across the limbic area (Sani et al, 2018). There has also been advanced in developing hardware platforms to facilitate a more ecological approach in systems neuroscience and BCI design, where a wearable platform has been developed to record intracranial neural activity as well as behavioral markers for freely moving human subjects (Topalovic et al, 2023).…”

Hybrid neuroelectronics: towards a solution-centric way of thinking about complex problems in neurostimulation tools

“…Beyond the physical barriers that placement methods can impose on specific techniques, materials, architecture, and post-processing are critical in identifying the spatiotemporal resolution of a front-end interface. consumption that can produce miniaturized units (Zhou et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2020;Shin et al, 2022;Topalovic et al, 2023). The processing unit collects and processes data from the front-end interfaces to save them in an internal storage unit, transfer them to external centers/databases, or, if the neuroelectronic device is implemented in a closed-loop manner rather than an open-loop manner, send signals back to the front end to modulate neural activity.…”

“…On the other hand, BCIs are focused on recording high spatial density and high-fidelity neural activity, where stimulation is performed on a limited number of channels (Ranjandish et al, 2018a;Even-Chen et al, 2020). Finally, some bidirectional neuro-electronic devices would benefit from both high-density recording and stimulation for closedloop applications (Zhou et al, 2018;Shin et al, 2022;Topalovic et al, 2023). The balance in the directionality of the device shifts the challenges and requirements.…”

Potential of Photoelectric Stimulation with Ultrasmall Carbon Electrode on Neural Tissue: New Directions in Neuromodulation Technology Development

“…The neuromodulation technology field is experiencing rapid growth, capturing the interest of both the scientific community and the general public due to its potential in treating a variety of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Neuromodulation involves directly interfacing with the nervous system using electrical, electromagnetic, or chemical methods to precisely control and regulate neural activity [8][9][10].…”