Silk-enabled conformal intraventricular interfaces for minimally invasive neural recordings

Abstract

Flexible neural interfaces capable of monitoring subcortical neuronal activity facilitate the study of deep brain neural circuits and their interactions with the cortex. However, there exists a paucity of translational tools for interfacing subcortical nuclei surfaces within the intraventricular cerebrospinal fluid. Here, we developed a flexible and conformal intraventricular interface (IVI) featuring a deformable microelectrode array paired with a silk scaffold. The IVI can be minimally invasively implanted into the lateral ventricles with the assistance of commonly used clinical catheters, self-unfolding in the cerebrospinal fluid environment to conformally attach to the surfaces of periventricular neural structures, and capturing high-quality signals by virtue of the microelectrode’s in-plane shielding. In parkinsonian ewes, the IVI detects deep brain abnormalities and achieves stable, biocompatible in vivo recordings for four weeks. This platform enables chronic monitoring and circuit analysis of healthy and diseased deep brain regions, facilitating studies of neural circuits between periventricular surface neurons and distant brain areas.