Cyborg Tadpoles Open Up to Study of Developing Brain

In the laboratories of Harvard, cyborg tadpoles have been obtained, in which a very small neural device has been implanted , thin, soft and extendable, which allows to monitor live the development of the brain and spinal cord without any impact on the growth or behavior of the animal. A technology that in the future could allow to study the mysteries of the brain and the diseases that manifest themselves in the early stages of development , such as autism , bipolar disorder and schizophrenia . This is indicated by a study published in the journal Nature by researchers of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in the United States.

The results demonstrate that the device integrates perfectly into the brain and adapts to its growth during development without causing any damage, recording the electrical activity of individual brain cells with millisecond precision .

“It’s not currently possible to measure neural activity during the early stages of neural development, and our technology will open up new possibilities,” says Jia Liu, associate professor of bioengineering at SEAS. “If we can take full advantage of the natural developmental process, we will be able to implant multiple sensors into the brain noninvasively and simultaneously monitor the gradual evolution of brain activity over time. No one has ever done this before.”

The research builds on a multiyear effort to create soft, flexible , and noninvasive brain- friendly bioelectronic components that have a consistency similar to that of tofu . The implant was made using fluorinated elastomers that are as soft as biological tissue but can be engineered into highly resilient electronic components that can withstand nanofabrication processes and house various sensors to record brain activity.