Overview
- The implant sits beneath the scalp on the skull and uses red light to activate cortical neurons across multiple regions through bone.
- An array of up to 64 independently controlled micro‑LEDs enables complex spatiotemporal stimulation that mirrors distributed sensory activity.
- In behavioral tests, mice learned to identify a specific light pattern among many and used it to choose the correct reward port, evidencing artificial perception.
- The system is battery‑free, wirelessly powered, roughly the size of a postage stamp, and can be programmed in real time without altering natural behavior.
- Researchers plan to expand array density and wavelengths and probe how many distinct codes the brain can learn, with therapeutic uses discussed as future possibilities.