Bioelectric medicine treatments target disorders of the nervous system unresponsive to pharmacological methods. While current stimulation paradigms effectively treat many disorders, the underlying mechanisms are relatively unknown, and current neuroscience recording electrodes are often limited in their specificity to gross averages across many neurons or axons. Here, we develop a novel, durable carbon fiber electrode array adaptable to many neural structures for precise neural recording. Carbon fibers ( 6.8 μm6.8~\mu \text{m} diameter) were sharpened using a reproducible blowtorchmethod that uses the reflection of fibers against the surface of a water bath. The arrays were developed by partially embedding carbon fibers in medical-grade silicone to improve durability. We recorded acute spontaneous electrophysiology from the rat cervical vagus nerve (CVN), feline dorsal root ganglia (DRG), and rat brain. Blowtorching resulted in fibers of 72.3 ± 33.5-degree tip angle with 146.8 ± 17.7 μm146.8~\pm ~17.7~\mu \text{m} exposed carbon. Observable neural clusters were recorded using sharpened carbon fiber electrodes fromrat CVN ( 41.8 μVpp41.8~\mu \text{V}_{\text {pp}} ), feline DRG ( 101.1 μVpp101.1~\mu \text{V}_{\text {pp}} ), and rat brain ( 80.7 μVpp80.7~\mu \text{V}_{\text {pp}} ). Recordings from the feline DRG included physiologically relevant signals from increased bladder pressure and cutaneous brushing. These results suggest that this carbon fiber array is a uniquely durable and adaptable neural recordingdevice. In the future, this device may be useful as a bioelectric medicine tool for diagnosis and closed-loop neural control of therapeutic treatments and monitoring systems.

中文翻译：

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用于神经记录的锋利且机械耐用的碳纤维电极阵列


生物电医学治疗针对对药理学方法无反应的神经系统疾病。虽然当前的刺激范例有效地治疗了许多疾病，但其潜在机制相对未知，并且当前的神经科学记录电极通常局限于许多神经元或轴突的总平均值的特异性。在这里，我们开发了一种新颖、耐用的碳纤维电极阵列，适用于许多神经结构，以进行精确的神经记录。碳纤维（直径 6.8 μm6.8~\mu \text{m}）使用可重复的喷灯方法进行锐化，该方法利用纤维在水浴表面的反射。该阵列是通过将碳纤维部分嵌入医用级硅胶中来开发的，以提高耐用性。我们记录了大鼠颈迷走神经（CVN）、猫背根神经节（DRG）和大鼠大脑的急性自发电生理学。喷灯产生的纤维尖端角为 72.3 ± 33.5 度，暴露碳为 146.8 ± 17.7 μm146.8~\pm ~17.7~\mu \text{m}。使用来自大鼠 CVN ( 41.8 μVpp41.8~\mu \text{V}_{\text {pp}} )、猫 DRG ( 101.1 μVpp101.1~\mu \text{V} 的锐化碳纤维电极记录可观察的神经簇_{\text {pp}} ) 和大鼠大脑 ( 80.7 μVpp80.7~\mu \text{V}_{\text {pp}} )。来自猫科动物 DRG 的记录包括来自膀胱压力增加和皮肤刷洗的生理相关信号。这些结果表明，这种碳纤维阵列是一种独特的耐用且适应性强的神经记录设备。未来，该设备可能可用作生物电医学工具，用于治疗和监测系统的诊断和闭环神经控制。