Materials and Structural Designs for Neural Interfaces

TLDR

Rapid advances in neurotechnology enable bidirectional communication between the nervous system and engineered devices, and precise recording and stimulation of target neurons with suitable materials and structures can revolutionize medical applications, making a thorough understanding of device–biological interfaces essential. This review aims to highlight the basic concepts of neural signaling, recording, and stimulation to aid understanding of neural interfaces. It summarizes material considerations, introduces various suitable materials, and discusses key challenges and future directions for next‑generation neural interfaces.

Abstract

Rapid advances in neurotechnology enable bidirectional communication between the nervous system and engineered devices. The precise recording and stimulation of typical target neurons by neural interfaces with adequate materials and structures can provide revolutionized medical applications, including the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Thereby, a proper understanding of the electronic device and its interfacing biological surroundings is necessary. Here, this review highlights the basic concepts of neural signaling, neural recording, and stimulation to help understand neural interfaces. Then, we summarize the considerations of the materials and introduce a variety of materials that satisfy the requirements. Furthermore, the key challenges for next-generation neural interfaces are considered, and future directions are explored based on recent studies.