Meeting ID: 928 0482 8495 Passcode: 185518
Speaker: Keying Chen, PhD Candidate
Research Advisor: Dr. Takashi Kozai, Associate Professor
Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
Abstract: The intracortical microelectrode is an advanced brain machine interfacing technology aiming to understand basic neuroscience and restore cognitive or motor functions. However, the prevalence of intracortical microelectrode’s application is challenged by the declined stability and sensitivity in device ability to detect brain extracellular potentials over time, as the result of a series of tissue responses. Besides neuroinflammation, dysregulations of brain metabolism that delivers nutrients and removes accumulated waste in neurons may provide an alternative perspective on the decline in chronic recording performances of the implanted intracortical microelectrodes. In this talk, I will reveal how metabolic activity is disrupted by the intracortical microelectrode implantation at cellular resolution of oligodendrocyte and myelin activity and at subcellular resolution of autophagy and lysosomal degradation. I will show the association of metabolic dysregulations with malfunctions in network connectivity within and across the laminar circuit at the device interfaces. Inspiring by these biological knowledges, I will also briefly discuss some engineering methods such as electrical stimulation and carbon-fiber based photoelectric stimulation to improve brain metabolism at device interfaces. Future research investigating the significance of brain metabolic activity during brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases will help inspire more innovative engineering designs of therapies for neurological disorders.