Reconfigurable nanophotonic silicon probes for sub-millisecond deep-brain optical stimulation

Reconfigurable nanophotonic silicon probes for sub-millisecond deep-brain optical stimulation

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ABSTRACT The use of nanophotonics to rapidly and precisely reconfigure light beams for the optical stimulation of neurons in vivo has remained elusive. Here we report the design and


fabrication of an implantable silicon-based probe that can switch and route multiple optical beams to stimulate identified sets of neurons across cortical layers and simultaneously record


the produced spike patterns. Each switch in the device consists of a silicon nitride waveguide structure that can be rapidly (<20 μs) reconfigured by electrically tuning the phase of


light. By using an eight-beam probe, we show in anaesthetized mice that small groups of single neurons can be independently stimulated to produce multineuron spike patterns at


sub-millisecond precision. We also show that a probe integrating co-fabricated electrical recording sites can simultaneously optically stimulate and electrically measure deep-brain neural


activity. The technology is scalable, and it allows for beam focusing and steering and for structured illumination via beam shaping. The high-bandwidth optical-stimulation capacity of the


device might facilitate the probing of the spatiotemporal neural codes underlying behaviour. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content,


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about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS IMPLANTABLE NANOPHOTONIC NEURAL PROBES FOR INTEGRATED PATTERNED


PHOTOSTIMULATION AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL RECORDING Article Open access 05 April 2025 IMPLANTABLE SILICON NEURAL PROBES WITH NANOPHOTONIC PHASED ARRAYS FOR SINGLE-LOBE BEAM STEERING Article


Open access 18 December 2024 IMPLANTABLE PHOTONIC NEURAL PROBES WITH OUT-OF-PLANE FOCUSING GRATING EMITTERS Article Open access 15 June 2024 DATA AVAILABILITY The main data supporting the


results in this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. The raw and analysed datasets generated during the study are too large to be publicly shared, but they


are available for research purposes from the corresponding authors on reasonable request. CODE AVAILABILITY The code packages MClust 3.5 and CellBase R2013a are openly available at


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Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Brain EAGER (grant no. 1611090) and was performed in part at the Cornell NanoScale Facility, a


member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. ECCS-1542081). Back-end fabrication processing was done in


part at the Advanced Science Research Center NanoFabrication Facility at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. A.M. was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate


Research Fellowship (grant no. DGE-1144153). X.J. acknowledges the China Scholarship Council for financial support. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * These authors contributed equally:


Aseema Mohanty, Qian Li. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Aseema Mohanty, Mohammad Amin Tadayon, Samantha P. Roberts, 


Gaurang R. Bhatt, Euijae Shim, Xingchen Ji, Jaime Cardenas, Steven A. Miller & Michal Lipson * School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA Aseema


Mohanty & Xingchen Ji * Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, NY, USA Qian Li & Adam Kepecs * Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis,


St. Louis, MO, USA Qian Li & Adam Kepecs * Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA Jaime Cardenas * Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis,


St. Louis, MO, USA Adam Kepecs Authors * Aseema Mohanty View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Qian Li View author publications You can also


search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mohammad Amin Tadayon View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Samantha P. Roberts View author


publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Gaurang R. Bhatt View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Euijae Shim


View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Xingchen Ji View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *


Jaime Cardenas View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Steven A. Miller View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 


Google Scholar * Adam Kepecs View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Michal Lipson View author publications You can also search for this author


inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS A.M. designed and tested the performance of the nanophotonic probe. Q.L. performed the animal surgery, histological analysis and electrophysiology data


analysis. A.M. and Q.L. developed and conducted the in vivo electrophysiology experiment with the assistance of M.A.T. and S.P.R. A.M. fabricated the nanophotonic probe with the assistance


of X.J. and J.C. S.P.R. developed and fabricated the integrated recording electrode process. E.S. and G.R.B. assisted with back-end fabrication processing and electrical packaging,


respectively. A.M. and M.A.T. developed the fibre packaging for in vivo experiments. S.A.M. developed the software interface for optical characterization. A.M., Q.L., M.A.T., A.K. and M.L.


designed the experiment and discussed the results. A.M., Q.L. and M.A.T. designed and built the experimental setup. A.K. and M.L. supervised the project. A.M., Q.L., A.K. and M.L. prepared


the manuscript. M.A.T., S.P.R., G.R.B., E.S., X.J., J.C. and S.A.M. edited the manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Adam Kepecs or Michal Lipson. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING


INTERESTS A.M., Q.L., M.A.T., X.J., A.K. and M.L. are listed as inventors in a patent application related to this work, filed by Columbia University. The remaining authors declare no


competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary discussion, figures and references. REPORTING SUMMARY SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO 1 Independent illumination of eight spots with low


cross-talk. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Mohanty, A., Li, Q., Tadayon, M.A. _et al._ Reconfigurable nanophotonic silicon probes for


sub-millisecond deep-brain optical stimulation. _Nat Biomed Eng_ 4, 223–231 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-020-0516-y Download citation * Received: 01 May 2018 * Accepted: 13 January


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