Microinvasive probes for the longitudinal interrogation of neural dynamics

Chronically implantable probes are critical to investigating the neural dynamics of functions such as learning, motivation, and movement control over the extended timescales at which they develop. Proven functional lifetimes of over a year are also necessary for eventual clinical use in human patients to help monitor and treat certain neurological diseases. Existing electrochemical probes experience signal degradation and have not been reported to remain viable after 4 months of implantation. Chronic inflammatory and foreign body responses due to large implanted device size and mechanical mismatch are believed to be major contributors to signal degradation. In the first half of this thesis, I present the design of parylene-coated carbon fiber electrodes for electrochemical measurements that reduces implanted footprint by 2 orders of magnitude and flexural rigidity by 3 orders of magnitude compared to state-of-art electrochemical probes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Elizabeth Y.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael J. Cima.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121645

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121645