Deep brain stimulation has become more common recently, and scientists continue to innovate to improve its application. For example, frequently changing batteries is a major hurdle to overcome, so researchers have developed a novel way to charge brain implants.
According to Futurism's report, researchers from the University of Connecticut claim in a study that they have developed a technology that charges the implants through breathing movements, overcoming the major hurdle of messy mechanics of charging an object inside the body.
Neuro interface patient Nathan Copeland, a quadriplegic brain implant patient who can experience the sensation of touch and control a remote robotic arm with his brain, listens as US President Barack Obama speaks while touring innovation projects at the White House Frontiers Conference at the University of Pittsburg in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 2016.
How Does It Work?
There are about 150,000 deep brain stimulator devices made each year, and most of them are placed under the skin in the chest area, and their electrodes implanted in the brain. The electrodes zap electrical pulses to the brain multiple times per second to regulate the abnormal electrical activity of the brain.
According to the UConn press release, deep brain simulators help people with Parkinson's and other motor diseases regain control of the muscle and motor neurons. Previous studies show that it can also significantly reduce symptoms of psychiatric conditions, such as treatment-resistant depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
But like pacemakers, brain implants are battery-powered. However, deep brain stimulator batteries require changing after two to three years because of their high energy consumption, unlike pacemakers could last for seven to 10 years. More so, each battery change requires surgery.
On the other hand, the new deep brain stimulator UConn chemists developed uses the motion of the user's chest while breathing into electricity instead of using the battery. During exhalation and inhalation, the chest wall presses on the triboelectric nanogenerator, which converts that movement into static electricity.
The wall and the balloon have different static electric charges, so charges from the negative material stick to the positive. The triboelectric nanogenerator creates a current that charges the supercapacitor, discharges the electricity to power the medical device, and stimulates the brain.
READ ALSO: Brain Implant Reverses Symptoms of Patient With Incurable Parkinson's Disease, Medical Trial Reveals
Self-Sustainable Deep Brain Stimulator
Researchers embedded the triboelectric nanogenerator in the chest of a simulated pig that contains a pig lung connected to a pump to test the device, Interesting Engineering reported.
They noted that the chest wall of the simulated pig pushed against the nanogenerator when the pig breathed, causing layers inside to rub and produce electricity that travels through a wire to charge the supercapacitor and power the electronics outside the rib cage. The electricity stored in the supercapacitor is used to generate pulses 60 times a second.
The device is the first known system combining efficient energy harvesting, storage, and a controlled brain stimulator. The study, titled "Self-sustainable intermittent deep brain stimulator," published in Cell Reports Physical Science, demonstrated that the deep brain stimulator is self-sustainable and can intermittently simulate the brain tissue by alternating periods of stimulation and no stimulation.
They plan to test the device on a larger animal for the next step of their study.
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