Reading the brain, wirelessly

Wireless brain implants could one day help treat patients suffering from epileptic seizures or solve the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease and mental disorders.

Third-year electrical and computer engineering PhD student Cedric Lee is among those working to advance this technology by applying electromagnetic research toward the unobtrusive reading of brain signals.

Working at Ohio State’s ElectroScience Laboratory (ESL), Lee designed a fully-passive, implanted neural sensor for wireless brain signal monitoring. It requires no battery or power harvester of any kind.

Technology like this could someday allow doctors to study brain signals in real-time, using inconspicuous sensors and without negatively affecting a patient's daily activities. 

Current methods typically use wires to connect brain implants to an exterior power unit and/or rechargeable battery pack, which can increase the risk of infection or heat up and damage brain tissue.

While there are other fully-passive wireless implants in existence, the designs lack the ability to detect very low-powered brain signals. Lee's work improves upon these devices by up to 22dB.

"This remarkable sensitivity implies the reading of most known and useful brain signals, and introduces new possibilities in neuropotential detection for a very wide range of applications," explained Lee.

The designs and research were written under the guidance of Lee's co-advisors, Ohio State Senior Research Associate Asimina Kiourti and ESL Director John Volakis.

“Work is already in progress to validate our implant’s performance in animals and potentially in humans," Kiourti said. "Overall, this is a game-changing capability that can transform healthcare delivery for epileptics, paraplegics and people with several other neurological disorders.”

Lee recently received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Antennas and Propagation Society’s Doctoral Research Award for his work, which includes a $2,500 fellowship to help advance his research in electromagnetics. 

The team’s latest paper about their research, “A Wireless Fully-Passive Neural Recording Device for Unobtrusive Neuropotential Monitoring” is scheduled to appear in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering in January 2016.

by Ryan Horns, Electrical and Computer Engineering; edited by college communications staff