2023-05-11 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校(EPFL)
2023 EPFL / Aiain Helzog
◆この新しい電極は、螺旋状のアームを持ち、一つずつ展開される柔軟性に優れたもので、小さな穴を通して脳に展開することができます。この開発結果がScience Roboticsで発表されました。
◆これは、患者に合わせた効果的な治療法を提供するための必要なアプローチです。現在、この電極の開発は、EPFLのスピンオフ企業であるNeurosoft Bioelectronicsによって担当され、臨床的な準備が進められています。
<関連情報>
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/deployable-electrodes-for-minimally-invasive-crani/
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.add1002
ソフトロボットアクチュエーターによる皮質電位計システムの展開 Deployment of an electrocorticography system with a soft robotic actuator
Sukho Song,Florian Fallegger,Alix Trouillet,Kyungjin Kim and Stéphanie P. Lacour
Science Robotics Published:10 May 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.add1002
Abstract
Electrocorticography (ECoG) is a minimally invasive approach frequently used clinically to map epileptogenic regions of the brain and facilitate lesion resection surgery and increasingly explored in brain-machine interface applications. Current devices display limitations that require trade-offs among cortical surface coverage, spatial electrode resolution, aesthetic, and risk consequences and often limit the use of the mapping technology to the operating room. In this work, we report on a scalable technique for the fabrication of large-area soft robotic electrode arrays and their deployment on the cortex through a square-centimeter burr hole using a pressure-driven actuation mechanism called eversion. The deployable system consists of up to six prefolded soft legs, and it is placed subdurally on the cortex using an aqueous pressurized solution and secured to the pedestal on the rim of the small craniotomy. Each leg contains soft, microfabricated electrodes and strain sensors for real-time deployment monitoring. In a proof-of-concept acute surgery, a soft robotic electrode array was successfully deployed on the cortex of a minipig to record sensory cortical activity. This soft robotic neurotechnology opens promising avenues for minimally invasive cortical surgery and applications related to neurological disorders such as motor and sensory deficits.
