Vyza, Y. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

THE NEURONAL ARCHITECTURE OF AUTONOMIC DYSREFLEXIA

Autonomic dysreflexia is a life-threatening medical condition characterized by episodes of uncontrolled hypertension that occur in response to sensory stimuli after spinal cord injury (SCI)1-7. The fragmented understanding of the mechanisms underlying autonomic dysreflexia hampers the development of therapeutic strategies to manage this condition, leaving people with SCI at daily risk of heart attack and stroke8-18. Here, we expose the complete de novo neuronal architecture that develops after SCI and causes autonomic dysreflexia. In parallel, we uncover a competing, yet overlapping neuronal architecture activated by epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord that safely regulates blood pressure after SCI. The discovery that these adversarial neuronal architectures converge onto a single neuronal subpopulation provided a blueprint for the design of a mechanism-based intervention that reversed autonomic dysreflexia in mice, rats, and humans with SCI. These results establish a path for the effective treatment of autonomic dysreflexia in people with SCI.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Code Multiplexed Nanocapacitor Arrays for Scalable Neural Recordings

Large scale neural recordings are redefining our understanding of the brain. However, simultaneously recording potentials from thousands of microelectrodes remains challenging. We overcome this limitation by measuring activity-induced changes in mutual capacitance. Code division multiplexing enabled simultaneous recordings of neural activity from 1,024 nanocapacitor electrodes at a density of 10k electrodes/mm.2 Features of neural activity i.e., action potentials, bursts, and local field potentials were measured in recordings, benchmarking our device against the state-of-the-art. SummaryCapacitive sensing of neural activity improves the scalability, fabrication, and miniaturization of microelectrode arrays.

neuroscience↗