Novel in vitro and in vivo neural interfaces: normal and accelerated failure assessment

Neural implantation of devices and the subsequent tissue response are complex and cascading physical and biological phenomena. Creation of reliable neural interfaces remains a significant challenge. Penetrating central nervous system interfaces persist as the most challenging to realize but continue to be the most attractive because of the information bandwidth advantages they provide. This rich information source is essential for achieving next-generation prosthetic control. Specific challenges of penetrating central nervous system interfaces arise because of the reactive tissue response to the initial injury due to device insertion as well as the continued response due to device indwelling. These responses consist of biochemical signaling events, microglial activation, and astrogliotic cell reorganization that result in biophysical changes of the tissue near the implanted device and finally, electrophysiological neural cell/signal loss (Figure 1). The ultimate realization of reliable penetrating neural interfaces will require careful science and engineering approaches incorporating knowledge of relevant and critical biological, physical, and chemical factors, especially their interrelationship. In this article, we describe a comprehensive strategy to assess the reliability of penetrating central neural interfaces based on the biology and pathology of the injury and indwelling tissue responses. Our strategy involves a parallel, self-informing approach by simultaneous development of new in vitro and in vivo assessment techniques as well as using these state-of-the-art techniques to conduct accelerated lifetime assessments of neural interface degradation.