In <Bww3F3.zE at news.cso.uiuc.edu> Jeremy Payne writes:
>FRICHARD at biomed.med.yale.edu (Frank Richardson) writes:
>>>Hello all,
>>Just curious, does anyone know of research into interfacing neurons and silicon
>>chips? I'm very serious. I am interested in exploring possibilites for neurons
>>communicating with electronics and vic-versa.
>>Danke,
>>FR
>>Yup,
>there's some work being done with thin Si wafers impregnated with closely spaced
>laser ablated pores, I think out at Stanford, but of course I can't remember who
>or exactly where off the top of my head. In a nutshell, they section I _think_
>the peroneal nerve in a rat then butt the two stumps up against opposite sides
>of their wafer and let the fibers regrow through the pores. At the seminar I
>heard a year or so ago they claimed something reasonably impressive like 25 %
>of the proximal fibers finding their appropriate targets. What's really cool of
>course is that you can embed electrodes in the chip at the sites of the pores...
>Sorry I can't be specific about who, what, when & where, but if it helps you
>the guy giving the seminar (whose name of course I also don't recall) does work
>on silastic cochlear implants and is pretty well known.
>>---------------------------
>Jeremy Payne
>UIUC Neuroscience program /
>College of Medicine
>jrpayne at uiuc.edu>(217)244-4478
>---------------------------
>Wouldn't happen to be Carver Mead??
Robert Simonoff
simonofb at wmavm7.vnet.ibm.com
