Multi-electrode arrays serve to record electrical signals of many neurons in the brain simultaneously. For most of the past century, electrodes that penetrate brain tissue have had exactly one shape: a straight needle. Certainly this was a good starting choice at the time, but there is no reason to think that a straight line would be the optimal shape in all Neuroscience applications. Here I argue that, in fact, a wide variety of curved shapes is equally practical: all possible helices. I discuss the manufacture and manipulation of such devices, and illustrate a few use cases where they will likely outperform conventional needles. With some collective action from the research community, curved arrays could be manufactured and distributed at low cost.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2107.13532,
title = {Curved Micro-Electrode Arrays},
author = {Markus Meister},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.13532},
year = {2021}
}