by The Physics arXiv Blog
July 16, 2013

from MIT-TechnologyReview Website
 

 

 

 

Intelligent dust particles embedded in the brain

could form an entirely new form

of brain-machine interface, say engineers

 

 

 

 

 

The real time monitoring of brain function has advanced in leaps and bounds in recent years.

 

That’s largely thanks to various new technologies that can monitor the collective behavior of groups of neurons, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalopathy and positron emission tomography.

 

This work is revolutionizing our understanding of the way the brain is structured and behaves. It has also lead to a new engineering discipline of brain-machine interfaces, which allows people to control machines by thought alone.

 

Impressive though these techniques are, they all suffer from inherent limitations such as limited spatial resolution, a lack of portability and extreme invasiveness.

 

Today, Dongjin Seo and pals at the University of California Berkeley reveal an entirely new way to study and interact with the brain. Their idea is to sprinkle electronic sensors the size of dust particles into the cortex and to interrogate them remotely using ultrasound. The ultrasound also powers this so-called neural dust.

 

Each particle of neural dust consists of standard CMOS circuits and sensors that measure the electrical activity in neurons nearby. This is coupled to a piezoelectric material that converts ultra-high-frequency sound waves into electrical signals and vice versa.

 

The neural dust is interrogated by another component placed beneath the scale but powered from outside the body. This generates the ultrasound that powers the neural dust and sensors that listen out for their response, rather like an RFID system.

 

The system is also tetherless - the data is collected and stored outside the body for later analysis. That gets around many of the limitations. The system is lower power, can have a high spatial resolution, and it is easily portable.

 

It is also rugged and can potentially provides a link over long periods of time.

“A major hurdle in brain-machine interfaces (BMI) is the lack of an implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime,” say Seo and co.

The difficulty is in designing and building such a system and today’s paper is a theoretical study of these challenges.

 

First is the problem of designing and building neural dust particles on a scale of roughly 100 micrometers that can send and receive signals in the harsh, warm and noisy environment within the body.

 

That’s why Seo and co have chosen ultrasound to send and receive data. They calculate that the power required to use electromagnetic waves on the scale would generate a damaging amount of heat because of the amount of energy the body absorbs and the troubling signal-to-noise ratios at this scale.

 

By contrast, ultrasound is a much more efficient and should allow the transmission of at least 10 million times more power than electromagnetic waves at the same scale.

 

Next is the problem of linking the electronics to the piezoelectric system that converts ultrasound to electronic signals and vice versa. Ensuring that the system works efficiently will be tricky given that it has to be packaged in an inert polymer or insulator film (which must also expose the recording electrodes to nearby neurons).

 

Finally, there is the challenge of designing and building the interrogation system that generates the ultrasound to power the entire array but at a low enough power to avoid heating skull and the brain.

 

On top of all this is the additional challenge of implanting the neural dust particles in the cortex. Seo and co say this can probably be done by fabricating the dust particles on the tips of a fine wire array, held in place by surface tension, for example. This array would be dipped into the cortex where the dust particles become embedded.

 

That’s an ambitious vision that is littered with challenges beyond the state-of-the-art. However, the team has a strong background in nanoelectromechanical systems and in the interface between electronic systems and cells.

 

Indeed, one of the authors, Michel Maharbiz, developed the world’s first remotely controlled beetle a few years ago, a development that was named one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2009 by Technology Review.

 

These guys are clearly not afraid to take on big challenges. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare.

 

Ref: Neural Dust - An Ultrasonic, Low Power Solution for Chronic BrainMachine Interfaces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 Intelligent Neural Dust Embedded in The Brain Could Be...

The Ultimate Brain-Computer Interface
by Neurogadget
 July 18, 2013

from Neurogadget Website

 

 

 

 

A recent theoretical paper (Literal Smart Dust Opens Brain-Computer Pathway to "Spy on Your Brain") has described a system concept termed ‘neural dust’- a miniaturized low power system to support brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and monitor the brain from inside.

 

Embedded in the brain, the intelligent dust particles could form an entirely new form of BCI, say Berkeley Engineering researchers.

 

A major hurdle in brain-computer interfaces is the lack of an implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime. This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems.

 

A network of tiny implantable sensors could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. The smart dust particles would all contain an extremely small CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons.

 

The researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back via high-frequency sound waves. The neural dust would also be coated with polymer.

 

Probably the biggest challenge is implanting the neural dust particles in the cortex. Dongjun Seo and colleagues say this can probably be done by fabricating the dust particles on the tips of a fine wire array, held in place by surface tension.

 

This array would be dipped into the cortex where the dust particles become embedded.

 

 

 

 

The long-lasting neural dust would clearly solve the problems of size and invasiveness posed by current brain imaging technologies, but don’t get your hopes up yet. 

 

Although the ultimate BCI won’t become a reality for a while, maybe this kind of implantable data collection will be possible soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literal Smart Dust Opens Brain-Computer Pathway to...

"Spy on Your Brain"

by Nicholas West

July 19, 2013
from ActivistPost Website

 

 

 

Nano-Drones

Neuroscientists Now Invading Our Brains

 

 

 

 

 

 


 Some might have heard about 'Smart Dust', nanoparticles that can be employed as sensor networks for a range of security and environmental applications.

 

Now, however, literal Smart Dust for the brain is being proposed as the next step toward establishing a brain-computer interface.

The system is officially called "neural dust" and works to "monitor the brain from the inside." Inventors are attempting to overcome the hurdle of how to best implant sensors that can remain over the course of one's life.

 

Researchers at Berkeley Engineering believe they have found a novel way to achieve this:

This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems. 

A network of tiny implantable sensors could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. The smart dust particles would all contain an extremely small CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons.

 

The researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back via high-frequency sound waves.

 

The neural dust would also be coated with polymer.

(Source)

The investment in neuroscience has received a $100 million dollar commitment via Obama's BRAIN project, while Europe has committed $1.3 billion to build a supercomputer replica of the brain in a similarly comprehensive and detailed fashion as the Human Genome Project mapped DNA.
 

Concurrently, there is massive long-term investment in nanotech applications via the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 - Strategic Plan.

 

This 60-page document lays out a projected future "to understand and control matter" for the management of every facet of human life within the surveillance matrix of environment, health and safety. Twenty-five U.S. Federal agencies are participating.

The concept of Smart Dust has been applied and/or proposed for use in the following ways, just to name a few:

  • Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions.

  • Bomb-sniffing plants using rewired DNA to detect explosives and biological agents.

  • "Smart Dust" motes that wirelessly transmit data on temperature, light, and movement (this can also be used in currency to track cash).

However, this is the first time that there is a working plan to apply Smart Dust to the human brain.

 

Researchers claim it will be some time before (if ever) this is workable. One aspect that is interesting to note, is that once these particles are sent into the brain, it will be ultrasound that activates the system for full monitoring.

 

This is an area of research that also has been looked at by DARPA as one of the future methods of mind control.

Their idea is to sprinkle electronic sensors the size of dust particles into the cortex and to interrogate them remotely using ultrasound. The ultrasound also powers this so-called neural dust. 

Each particle of neural dust consists of standard CMOS circuits and sensors that measure the electrical activity in neurons nearby... 

The neural dust is interrogated by another component placed beneath the scale but powered from outside the body. This generates the ultrasound that powers the neural dust and sensors that listen out for their response, rather like an RFID system. 

The system is also tetherless–the data is collected and stored outside the body for later analysis.

(source, MIT)

Read "tetherless" as "wireless" - or remote controlled analysis of the human brain, thus opening the door (theoretically) for remote mind control.

 

As I've highlighted before, this is a two-way street - some people might feel content, for example, with sending their brain's information out to a doctor for evaluation, but this sensor network could also transmit data back, as is admitted here:

That’s why Seo and co have chosen ultrasound to send and receive data.

 

They calculate that the power required to use electromagnetic waves on the scale would generate a damaging amount of heat because of the amount of energy the body absorbs and the troubling signal-to-noise ratios at this scale. 

By contrast, ultrasound is a much more efficient and should allow the transmission of at least 10 million times more power than electromagnetic waves at the same scale.

In case anyone believes that this has little chance of success, MIT highlights that one of the authors of the research has already achieved this with a remote controlled beetle.

The human brain is clearly of vast, perhaps infinite, complexity - and this is without even introducing concepts such as "the mind" or "the soul."

Nevertheless, it is clear that the reductionists are doing their very best to "Solve the Brain" - measuring it, mapping it, and making sense of it.

(source)

Are we to believe that "controlling it" has been left off the list for mere ethical reasons? Not likely.
 

 

Full paper