Digitize nerve impulses
The modern development of neuroscience places high demands on the data management process. For example, if we are talking about brain-computer interfaces that work due to the interaction of electronic components with brain neurons.
Scientists from Lund University (Sweden) are developing a new method for collecting, processing and storing data on the activity of a large number of neurons. It will allow you to translate action potentials into a format that is perceived by a computer processor at a high speed.
The researchers believe that they will be able to simultaneously collect data from more than a million nerve cells, analyze the information and provide feedback within a few milliseconds. Thus, the new method will allow interacting with brain regions in real time.
The essence of the method is to recode information about the electrical activity of neurons into a binary system. This significantly saves storage capacity. Such information will be immediately available to the computer processor.
Unlike the information obtained, for example, when registering electrical impulses of the brain by external sensors during electroencephalography, the new method will eliminate interference and will allow recording impulses from each cell, as well as maintaining communication with individual neurons in a two-way format.
In addition to using information from a very large number of neurons, the method will also make it possible for scientific and clinical purposes to process stored records for long periods.
Progress in the study of the brain in recent years has led to the need to analyze and store a huge amount of information received from nerve cells. The scope of the new method is extensive: from the creation of bionic prostheses for paralyzed patients to the detection of pathological activity of neurons in epilepsy. It can be used in basic research, clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Unfortunately, of all these blocks, only two have been implemented so far: an encoder and a storage device for storing data about nerve impulses (spike data storage).
Article by B. Ljungquist et al. A Bit-Encoding Based New Data Structure for Time and Memory Efficient Handling of Spike Times in an Electrophysiological Setup is published in the journal Neuroinformatics.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru Based on Lund University: New method manages and stores data from millions of nerve cells – in real time.