Publications related to Technology developments to initiate a next generation of Cochlear Implants

Modeling, fabrication and validation of 3D neural interfaces for peripheral nerves and brain organoids

This thesis presents an extensive exploration of neuroelectronic interfaces, focusing on microfabrication, in silico modeling, and their applications in designing and fabricating devices for neural interfacing. The research encompasses both peripheral nerv ...

EPFL2024

Unraveling behavior and cortical signals to guide the development of soft neuroprostheses for auditory restoration and spreading depolarization

Emilie Cornelia Maria Revol

Neuroprostheses have been used clinically for decades, to help restore or preserve brain functions, when pharmaceutical treatments are inefficient. Although great progress in the field has been made over the years to interface with the nervous system, surf ...

EPFL2024

33.3 MiBMI: A 192/512-Channel 2.46mm² Miniaturized Brain-Machine Interface Chipset Enabling 31-Class Brain-to-Text Conversion Through Distinctive Neural Codes

Gregor Rainer, Mahsa Shoaran, Amitabh Yadav, Uisub Shin, Mohammad Ali Shaeri

Recently, cutting-edge brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) have revealed the potential of decoders such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) in predicting attempted handwriting [1] or speech [2], enabling rapid communication recovery after paralysis. However, c ...

IEEE2024

Integrated Wireless Power, Data Communication, and Thermal Sensing System for Autonomous Multisite Brain Implants

Implanted medical devices (IMDs) have been widely developed to support the monitoring and recording of biological data inside the body or brain. Wirelessly powered IMDs, a subset of implantable electronics, have been proposed to eliminate the limitations r ...

EPFL2024

Customizing the human-avatar mapping based on EEG error related potentials during avatar-based interaction

Ronan Boulic, Ricardo Andres Chavarriaga Lozano, Bruno Herbelin, José del Rocio Millán Ruiz, Olaf Blanke, Fumiaki Iwane, Thibault Serge Mario Porssut

Objective. A key challenge of virtual reality (VR) applications is to maintain a reliable human-avatar mapping. Users may lose the sense of controlling (sense of agency), owning (sense of body ownership), or being located (sense of self-location) inside th ...

2024

Subcortical correlates of consciousness with human single neuron recordings

Michael Eric Anthony Pereira, Olaf Blanke, Nathan Quentin Faivre, Fosco Bernasconi

Subcortical brain structures such as the basal ganglia or the thalamus are involved in regulating motor and cognitive behavior. However, their contribution to perceptual consciousness is still unclear, due to the inherent difficulties of recording subcorti ...

2024

Miniaturised, Wireless and Distributed Neural Interface Toward Cortical Visual Prosthesis

Gian Luca Barbruni

Over the last decades, implantable neural interfaces have been extensively explored and effectively deployed to address neurological and mental health disorders. The existing solutions present several limitations. Firstly, the physical size of the implanta ...

EPFL2023

Brain-controlled spinal cord stimulation to restore mobility after spinal cord injury

Carmina Andrea Galvez Solano

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) affects almost 500,000 people every year, causing complete paralysis of both legs in severe cases, with no current treatment perspective. However, new neuroengineering technologies, such as the Brain Spine Interface (BSI), have eme ...

EPFL2023

Engineering Hydrogel-coated Neural Interfaces for Chronic Deep Brain Recording

Noaf Salah Ali Alwahab

Implanted brain electrodes provide a unique way of electrically interfacing with individual neurons in vivo. However, chronic recording or stimulating capabilities of neural implants are often impaired by a strong immune response resulting in a fibrous sca ...

EPFL2023

Development of new volcano-shaped microelectrodes for single cell electrochemistry, electrophysiology and impedance studies

Nicolas Grégoire Maïno

Micro- nano-electrodes have demonstrated superior performances in measuring attenuated intracellular action potentials from electrogenic cell cultures compared to traditional multi-electrode arrays. Yet, the understanding of the critical electrode features ...

EPFL2023

Engineering Materials for Neurotechnology

Diego Ghezzi

Neurotechnology applies methods and devices to mitigate the burden of neurological and mental disorders. In particular, neural interfaces establish a long-term, seamless, symbiotic integration between implants and neural tissue. Materials play a pivotal ro ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2023

Playing Brains: The Ethical Challenges Posed by Silicon Sentience and Hybrid Intelligence in DishBrain

The convergence of human and artificial intelligence is currently receiving considerable scholarly attention. Much debate about the resulting Hybrid Minds focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into the human brain through intelligent brain- ...

2023

Hardware Implementation of Digital Signal Processing Algorithms for Programmable Epilepsy Control Systems

Keyvan Farhang Razi

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder that causes recurring seizures and affects more than 50 million people worldwide. Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are regarded as effective tools to cure patients who suffer from refractory epilepsy. Se ...

EPFL2023

An attention-based deep learning approach for the classification of subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment using resting-state EEG

Silvestro Micera, Michael Lassi

Objective. This study aims to design and implement the first deep learning (DL) model to classify subjects in the prodromic states of Alzheimer's disease (AD) based on resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. Approach. EEG recordings of 17 heal ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023

Neurophysiological underpinnings of an intensive protocol for upper limb motor recovery in subacute and chronic stroke patients

Silvestro Micera, Matteo Vissani, Michael Lassi

ABS T R A C T BACKGROUND: Upper limb (UL) motor impairment following stroke is a leading cause of functional limitations in activities of daily living. Robot-assisted therapy supports rehabilitation, but how its efficacy and the underlying neural mechanism ...

Edizioni Minerva Medica2023

Real-time actuation of a dielectric elastomer actuator neuroprosthesis for facial paralysis

Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Armando Matthieu Walter, Amine Benouhiba

Facial paralysis is a highly burdening condition, resulting in a patient's inability to move his mimic musculature on one or both sides of his face. This condition compromises the patient's communication and facial expressions, and thus dramatically reduce ...

2023

Fabrication and validation of an intraneural interface tailored for optic nerve stimulation

Eleonora Borda

Technological progress in materials science and microengineering along with new discoveries in neuroscience have contributed to restore lost or impaired sensory functions by closely interfacing with the nervous system. Electronic devices have begun to be i ...

EPFL2022

Development of a Transient Neural Interface for Minimally Invasive Recording and Stimulation

Adele Fanelli

Transient electronics enabling devices to safely disappear in the environment can be applied not only in green electronics, but also in bioelectronic medicine. Neural implants able to degrade harmlessly inside the body eliminate the need for removal surger ...

EPFL2022

Conformable neural interfaces : from engineering stretchability at the micro-scale to translational applications

Florent-Valéry Coen

Recently, flexible and soft bioelectronic interfaces have been proposed as a solution to improve existing neural interfaces that currently present mechanical mismatch with the soft tissue. These are devices fabricated with thin polymeric or elastomeric bac ...

EPFL2022

The present and future of neural interfaces

Marcello Ienca

The 2020's decade will likely witness an unprecedented development and deployment of neurotechnologies for human rehabilitation, personalized use, and cognitive or other enhancement. New materials and algorithms are already enabling active brain monitoring ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2022