Neural Recording, Stimulation and Imaging Technologies
This community develops the hardware and biological tools used to record electrical signals from the brain and nervous system, stimulate neural tissue, and visualize cellular activity in real time.
The work centers on the engineering of microelectrode arrays, flexible thin-film sensors, and field-effect transistors for high-resolution neural recording. It includes the development of genetically encoded calcium indicators for imaging neural populations, as well as the design of electrodes using materials like iridium oxide and PEDOT:PSS for deep brain and spinal cord stimulation. Applications range from cochlear implants and Parkinson’s disease treatments to the monitoring of vagus nerve activity and the creation of bioresorbable optoelectronic systems for electrotherapy.
The community is most heavily represented in research tracked for iridium, accounting for 1.8% of that element’s total literature, followed by platinum at 0.5% and calcium at 0.3%. Iridium also contributes the highest absolute number of papers to this group, with 775 entries.
The community comprises 14,397 papers, published primarily in the Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neural Engineering, and Frontiers in Neuroscience.
Recent work focuses on ultra-high-density Neuropixels probes for neuronal recordings, minimally invasive implantation of high-density cortical microelectrode arrays for multimodal decoding, and the development of bioresorbable electronics for real-time clinical applications.