Conducting Polymer Microelectrode Arrays for Simultaneous Electrophysiology and Advanced Brain Imaging

Sagnik Middya; Alejandro Carnicer-Lombarte; Stephen Sawiak; Sam Hilton; Vincenzo F Curto; Damiano G Barone; Gabriele S Kaminski Schierle; George G Malliaras

doi:10.1002/adfm.202417312

Conducting Polymer Microelectrode Arrays for Simultaneous Electrophysiology and Advanced Brain Imaging

Sagnik Middya
, Alejandro Carnicer-Lombarte
, Stephen Sawiak
, Sam Hilton
, Vincenzo F Curto
, Damiano G Barone
, Gabriele S Kaminski Schierle^*
, George G Malliaras^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

In neuroscience research and clinical practice, electrophysiology is used to record and stimulate specific parts of the brain with high temporal resolution. This capability can be augmented by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides anatomical and functional information about the brain with large spatial coverage. However, metallic electrodes, commonly used in electrophysiology, are fundamentally incompatible with MRI due to heating concerns and imaging artefacts. Here, it is demonstrated that flexible micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) arrays, with electrodes made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), are compatible with ultra-high magnetic field MRI up to 9.4 T. A scalable fabrication process is adopted that results in very repeatable electrochemical properties across devices. The volumetric capacitance of PEDOT:PSS leads to low electrode impedance and enables high-resolution neural recordings of single-unit activity from the cortical surface of rodents. Furthermore, the µECoG array creates minimal distortion in T₂-weighted anatomical brain MRI. Multimodal brain monitoring is demonstrated by performing simultaneous blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) in parallel with electrical stimulation from the µECoG array. The results show that the PEDOT:PSS µECoG arrays enable the combination of high-resolution electrophysiology and advanced brain imaging in vivo. © 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Original language	English
Article number	2417312
Number of pages	10
Journal	Advanced Functional Materials
Volume	35
Issue number	24
Online published	16 Jan 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202417312
Publication status	Published - 19 Jun 2025
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust (223131/Z/21/Z). S.M. acknowledges funding from the Cambridge Trust, University of Cambridge. G.G.M. acknowledges funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) IRC in targeted delivery for hard\u2010to\u2010treat cancers (EP/S009000/1). V.F.C acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 732032 (BrainCom). G.S.K.S. acknowledges funding from the Wellcome Trust (065807/Z/01/Z) (203249/Z/16/Z), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) (MR/K02292X/1), Alzheimer Research UK (ARUK) (ARUK\u2010PG013\u201014), Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (16238; 022159) and Infinitus China Ltd.

Research Keywords

conducting polymer
electrophysiology
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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title = "Conducting Polymer Microelectrode Arrays for Simultaneous Electrophysiology and Advanced Brain Imaging",

abstract = "In neuroscience research and clinical practice, electrophysiology is used to record and stimulate specific parts of the brain with high temporal resolution. This capability can be augmented by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides anatomical and functional information about the brain with large spatial coverage. However, metallic electrodes, commonly used in electrophysiology, are fundamentally incompatible with MRI due to heating concerns and imaging artefacts. Here, it is demonstrated that flexible micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) arrays, with electrodes made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), are compatible with ultra-high magnetic field MRI up to 9.4 T. A scalable fabrication process is adopted that results in very repeatable electrochemical properties across devices. The volumetric capacitance of PEDOT:PSS leads to low electrode impedance and enables high-resolution neural recordings of single-unit activity from the cortical surface of rodents. Furthermore, the µECoG array creates minimal distortion in T2-weighted anatomical brain MRI. Multimodal brain monitoring is demonstrated by performing simultaneous blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) in parallel with electrical stimulation from the µECoG array. The results show that the PEDOT:PSS µECoG arrays enable the combination of high-resolution electrophysiology and advanced brain imaging in vivo. {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

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AU - Middya, Sagnik

AU - Carnicer-Lombarte, Alejandro

AU - Sawiak, Stephen

AU - Hilton, Sam

AU - Curto, Vincenzo F

AU - Barone, Damiano G

AU - Schierle, Gabriele S Kaminski

AU - Malliaras, George G

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N2 - In neuroscience research and clinical practice, electrophysiology is used to record and stimulate specific parts of the brain with high temporal resolution. This capability can be augmented by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides anatomical and functional information about the brain with large spatial coverage. However, metallic electrodes, commonly used in electrophysiology, are fundamentally incompatible with MRI due to heating concerns and imaging artefacts. Here, it is demonstrated that flexible micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) arrays, with electrodes made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), are compatible with ultra-high magnetic field MRI up to 9.4 T. A scalable fabrication process is adopted that results in very repeatable electrochemical properties across devices. The volumetric capacitance of PEDOT:PSS leads to low electrode impedance and enables high-resolution neural recordings of single-unit activity from the cortical surface of rodents. Furthermore, the µECoG array creates minimal distortion in T2-weighted anatomical brain MRI. Multimodal brain monitoring is demonstrated by performing simultaneous blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) in parallel with electrical stimulation from the µECoG array. The results show that the PEDOT:PSS µECoG arrays enable the combination of high-resolution electrophysiology and advanced brain imaging in vivo. © 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

AB - In neuroscience research and clinical practice, electrophysiology is used to record and stimulate specific parts of the brain with high temporal resolution. This capability can be augmented by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides anatomical and functional information about the brain with large spatial coverage. However, metallic electrodes, commonly used in electrophysiology, are fundamentally incompatible with MRI due to heating concerns and imaging artefacts. Here, it is demonstrated that flexible micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) arrays, with electrodes made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), are compatible with ultra-high magnetic field MRI up to 9.4 T. A scalable fabrication process is adopted that results in very repeatable electrochemical properties across devices. The volumetric capacitance of PEDOT:PSS leads to low electrode impedance and enables high-resolution neural recordings of single-unit activity from the cortical surface of rodents. Furthermore, the µECoG array creates minimal distortion in T2-weighted anatomical brain MRI. Multimodal brain monitoring is demonstrated by performing simultaneous blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) in parallel with electrical stimulation from the µECoG array. The results show that the PEDOT:PSS µECoG arrays enable the combination of high-resolution electrophysiology and advanced brain imaging in vivo. © 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

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KW - magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

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Conducting Polymer Microelectrode Arrays for Simultaneous Electrophysiology and Advanced Brain Imaging

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