A research group at the University of La Laguna has developed a new intraosseous optical implant to measure brain activity, as part of a project called ODIN. Its first prototype has recently been successfully implanted at Dr. Negrín Hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in an animal model—a pig—given its similarity to the human brain. This device allows for the less invasive transmission and reception of brain signals, with the aim of contributing, in the future, to the treatment of various pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease.
The person responsible for the design of the device has been Estefanía Hernández Martín, A distinguished researcher with the María Zambrano program, she recently joined the academic institution in Tenerife after leading multidisciplinary teams in engineering and neurology at the University and Hospital of California. The team at Dr. Negrín Hospital responsible for the complex neurosurgery consisted of Doctors Jesús Morera Molina, Sara Bisshopp, and Brian Melchiorsen, along with Dr. José Luis Martín Barrasa, a veterinary anesthesiologist and head of the animal experimentation and welfare area of the hospital's research unit.
The surgery utilized a surgical robot to guide the implantation trajectory of both the deep electrodes and the prototype intraosseous implant developed by the research team at the University of La Laguna. This robot, along with other surgical materials, was provided by the multinational company Medtronic Spain. A significant part of the project also involved Alejandro Artiles and his team at the Los Tarahales Veterinary Hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, who acquired the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans necessary for neuronavigation during the surgery.
Regarding the design and implementation of the new intraosseous optical implant, this first prototype has been developed by a research team from the University of La Laguna that includes doctors José Luis González Mora (deputy director of the University Institute of Neuroscience) and Francisco Marcano, the engineers Oscar Perez y Roberto Chávez, Zulema Castro and the aforementioned Dr. Estefanía Hernández-Martin, who has given an assessment of the project after the intervention: “The success of ODIN is due to the total commitment of the team, both in the clinical and technological field, who have been fully involved to achieve this accomplishment.”.
Hernández explains that the project encompasses everything from technological challenges, such as creating a new intraosseous implant prototype, to clinical challenges, such as performing complex robot-guided surgery and animal care. “This project has involved overcoming several steps and numerous milestones, facing errors that we have gradually resolved, as there have been many firsts. From now on, we will focus on taking measurements of both implants to develop motor control models that will benefit patients with motor disorders. ODIN has been the reason for my return to Europe, and I am extremely grateful to have led and executed such an innovative project in my country, with an incredible team. I will carry with me the pride and satisfaction of having been part of such an important project for the scientific community back home.”.
Interface for measuring neural activity
ODIN is an example of a brain-computer interface (BCI), devices that facilitate direct communication between the brain and external equipment. The implant's main objective is to identify activation patterns in the cerebral cortex that send rapid, highly precise signals to the muscles, which are regulated by deep brain nuclei to create a motor control model that will influence both clinical treatments and technological development.
On one hand, a miniaturized, minimally invasive, and biocompatible optical implant has been developed that is implanted within the skull. This is the first brain implant placed outside the brain parenchyma, thus avoiding biocompatibility problems such as edema and inflammation that occur with microelectrode implants currently under development.
ODIN will also be very useful for advancing research through the implantation of electrodes deep in the brain (from the English Deep Brain Stimulation or DBS), which is yielding information about the motor control of brain nuclei. DBS is a relatively new intervention category that relies on understanding neuroanatomy, information flow, and the ability to modulate it. Currently, there is a lack of information about motor control in models of healthy brains, so different hypotheses and theories based on studies of diseased brain models are circulating. Therefore, having a healthy brain model is crucial, which is precisely one of the objectives of ODIN.
More specifically, this first phase of the project aims, among other goals, to perform intracranial measurements within the motor loop during gait (movement); measure the vascular changes generated during movement through the optical implant in the motor and sensorimotor cortex; and create a model of motor control in a healthy brain. Thus, based on the model generated by these measurements, it will be possible to compare any motor pathology for effective diagnosis in patients.
Additionally, an optical implant of this type would allow for the extraction of information with high spatial and temporal resolution, and would be extremely energy-efficient, given the proximity of the light emitters to the cerebral cortex. It could send the recorded signals to external control and communication devices such as wheelchairs, computers, and home automation systems, which would be useful for patients with significant motor deficits.
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