Effects of geometry and material on the insertion of very small neural electrode.

For neural probes to be used chronically for years in the human body, they must provoke minimal scarring. Recently, a number of groups have reported substantially reduced scar tissue using cellular scale electrodes below 15 μm in size. This size scale is accessible to manufacturing techniques, but can be very difficult to insert in the brain for most common electrode materials.

Chronic in vivo stability assessment of carbon fiber microelectrode arrays.

Objective: Individual carbon fiber microelectrodes can record unit activity in both acute and semi-chronic (∼1 month) implants. Additionally, new methods have been developed to insert a 16 channel array of carbon fiber microelectrodes. Before assessing the in vivo long-term viability of these arrays, accelerated soak tests were carried out to determine the most stable site coating material.