A tadpole, colored with immunofluorescence to visualize his internal anatomy, which has been implanted as a brain tracking embryo as an embryo
Sheo is Sheng et al. 2025, Jia Law / Harvard Seas
How does our brain, which are able to generate thoughts, complex actions and even self-reflection, has become nothing? An experience in tadpoles, in which an electronic implant was incorporated into a precursor of their brain at the first embryonic stage, may have us closer to answering this question.
Past attempts to look in neurodevelopmental processes have relied on tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging or hard -stuck electrode wires in the brain. But imaging resolution was too low to be useful, while hard threads damaged the brain too much to offer something other than an instant of a specific development moment.
Now Jia Liu at Harvard University and his colleagues have identified a material – a type of perfluropolymer – whose sweetness and conformity correspond to that of the brain. They used it to build a soft and stretch mesh around ultra -athine conductors which they then placed on the neural plate – a flat and accessible structure which forms the neural tube, the brain precursor – of African claw frog (Xenopus Laevis) Embryos.
While the neural plate was withdrawn and expanded, the ribbon type mesh was subjected to the growing brain, where it maintained its functionality while stretching and leaning with the fabric. When the researchers wanted to measure the brain signals, they won the mesh to a computer, which displayed neural activity.
The implant seemed neither to damage the brain nor cause an immune response, and the embryos have developed in tadpoles as expected. At least one continued to become a normal frog, says Liu.
“Integrating all the materials and doing everything work is quite surprising,” explains Christopher Bettinger at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. “This is an excellent tool that could potentially advance fundamental neuroscience by allowing biologists to measure neural activity during development.”
The team has two main points to remember from experience. First, the models of neural activity have changed as planned because the tissues were differentiated into specialized structures responsible for different functions. It has not been possible to follow how a piece of fabric is self -using in a calculation machine, explains Liu.
A second mystery was how the brain activity of a regenerating animal changes after amputation. A long -standing idea was that the electrical activity goes to a previous state of development, that the team confirmed using its implant in an experience involving axolotles.
The Liu team now extends research to include rodents. Unlike amphibians, their development takes place in a uterus, so the establishment of the mesh will require in vitro fertilization and a more complex way of measuring the signal transmission than cable the mesh to a computer. However, Liu hopes that the ideas that could possibly be acquired by observing the first stages of conditions such as autism and schizophrenia are worth it.
Similar devices could potentially be used to monitor neuromuscular regeneration after repairing and rehabilitation of injuries, explains Bettinger. “Overall, it is an impressive tour de force that highlights the potential extent of applications for ultra-conform electronics,” he said.
Subjects:
