‘Smart’ brain material found
Scientists from Italy and Switzerland conducted a research which ended up giving some amazing results. It has shown that carbon nanotubes are the perfect ’smart’ brain material. That means that they have found a way to bypass the faulty brain wiring.
Scientists have shown that carbon nanotubes have a very important characteristic — they are highly electrically conductive and they form extremely tight contacts with neuronal cell membranes. Currently, reseearchers and scientists use metal electrodes, but they lack some vital features which nanotubes have. Carbon nanotubes can create shortcuts between the distal and proximal compartments of the neuron, resulting in enhanced neuronal excitability.
The whole project was done at EPFL in Switzerland. The project leader, Michael Giugliano said: “This result is extremely relevant for the emerging field of neuro-engineering and neuroprosthetics.” He also said that the nanotubes could be used as a new building block of novel “electrical bypass” systems for treating traumatic injury of the central nervous system. Carbon nano-electrodes could also be used to replace metal parts in clinical applications such as deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease or severe depression. And they show promise as a whole new class of “smart” materials for use in a wide range of potential neuroprosthetic applications.
The study’s coauthor, Henry Markram, said: “There are three fundamental obstacles to developing reliable neuroprosthetics: a) stable interfacing of electromechanical devices with neural tissue, b) understanding how to stimulate the neural tissue, and c) understanding what signals to record from the neurons in order for the device to make an automatic and appropriate decision to stimulate.” He said that the new carbon nanotube-based interface technology discovered together with state of the art simulations of brain-machine interfaces is the key to developing all types of neuroprosthetics — sight, sound, smell, motion, vetoing epileptic attacks, spinal bypasses, as well as repairing and even enhancing cognitive functions.
Source: epfl.ch
