U.S. and Japanese scientists invented new technology to direct the brain cable

Nano cable through the blood in some day in the future could help scientists monitor and stimulate the neurons in the human brain.

A composition by American and Japanese scientists study group recently developed a new method, the thinner than human hair 100 times platinum metal nano cable implanted blood vessels of human body, hope one day to use these nanocables help doctors treat some human neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Neuroscientists Rudolfo Llinas and colleagues think of many nano cable array into human blood vessels, and blood vessels by conduction and the human brain is connected. Once they enter the human brain, they disperse into bundles of flowers and enter the brain capillaries until they reach the designated location. When they arrive at the designated location, they can be used to record the electrical signals of a collection of individual neurons or neurons.

Scientists July 5, 2005 an article on nanotechnology research academic report claims to have the ability to produce than the human vascular micro fine nano cable. This means that scientists can make the nano cable in the human body in any way through the blood vessels to reach any designated location without prejudice to the normal blood vessels, oxygen and nutrient flow.

The research team conducted a simple experiment, they put the platinum nano cable implanted vessels and arrived at the designated location after the successful detection of the blood vessels near the neuronal activity.

Involved in the study, scientists including team of medical research at the New York University Rodolfo R. Llins leader, Masayuki Nakao of University of Tokyo in Japan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Ian Hunter and Patrick Anquetil.

NSF nanotechnology research senior adviser Mike Roco said, nano technology is becoming the most shining star of the research in the field of medicine and cognitive science.

Actually long before the medical home by inserting a metal conductor in the blood vessels to treat patients. They use metal conductors to study blood circulation in the blood vessels near the human heart.

Based on predecessors'achievements, researchers can naturally associate the array composed of many fine metal wires connected to the human brain, and to study the human brain neurons activities.

If the technology is finally successful, it will be of great help to researchers who study the human brain. Current brain scanning techniques, such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging, have enabled scientists to better understand the mechanisms of human brain neurons. But these scanning techniques are very clear. By analyzing the activities of individual neurons, scientists can improve the accuracy of the analysis to the cell level, greatly improving the scanning accuracy. Since then, scientists have been able to gain a better understanding of the interactions between neurons in the human brain. The research has found a new way for scientists to treat neurological diseases and opened up a new field of medical research. This study also shows the broad application prospects of the complex nano devices in the medical field.

This technology, if successful, will help scientists find brain damaged or abnormal areas are of great help. At the same time, LLINs and his collaborators pointed out that these cables can not only be used to receive the signal of nerve cells, but also to these cells signal. So the technology could also be used to treat Parkinson's disease.

Researchers have concluded that a direct external stimulation of abnormal areas of the brain in patients with Parkinson's syndrome is likely to restore some of the brain's function. Some patients with Parkinson's syndrome do not have a significant effect on drug treatment, they can only receive this physical therapy. But at present, the treatment is to lead the wires directly through the skull of the patient into the brain, which can damage the brain cells. The study could enable medical workers to stimulate damaged neurons in the brain through a cable in the blood vessels, without side effects.

One of the the urgent problem is how to make nano cable accurately find the specified path from thousands of tiny blood vessels in the. One way to solve this problem is to use new polymeric materials instead of the original ones. The polymeric material can not only conduct the electrical signal, but also change the shape arbitrarily, so that the operator can transmit the nano cable to the appointed place more easily. The polymeric material can also be made smaller and smaller, and at the same time, it is a biodegradable material, which is very suitable for short-term human implantation.

Anquetil of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said, this new material is very broad prospects and attractive. Scientists can make full use of its plasticity to produce products that are needed.