Bioelectric Interfaces for the Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is an attractive target for those developing neural interfaces as an access point to the information flow coursing within our bodies. A successful neural interface could not only offer the means to understand basic neurophysiological mechanisms, such as how the body accomplishes complex coordinated control of multi degree of freedom body segments, but also could serve as the means of delivering treatment or therapies to restore physiological functions lost due to injury or disease. Our work in the development of such a neural interface focuses upon multi-microelectrode devices that are placed within the body of the nerve fascicle; mulit-channel intra-fascicular devices called the thin-film Longitudinal Intra-Fascicular Electrode (tfLIFE) and the Transversely Implanted Multi-Electrode (TIME). These structures provide high resolution access to the PNS and have demonstrated promise in animal work as well as in preliminary sub-acute work in human volunteers. However, work remains to improve upon their longevity and biocompatibility before full translation to clinical work can occur. rho