THE NEURO-ELECTRONIC INTERFACE - MEASUREMENTS AND MODEL PREDICTIONS

The functional coupling of populations of chick embryo dorsal root gan g lia (DRG) neurons to planar arrays of microelectrodes has been chara cterized both experimentally and via computer simulations. Spontaneous electrical activity recorded with a multichannel automated workstatio n is compared with simulated activity, whose signal-to-noise ratio has been systematical ly varied by simulating changes in the strength of the neuron-to-substrate adhesion. The importance of this approach for the design of optimized neuro-electronic prostheses and for the develo pment of new tools for in vitro screening tests is briefly discussed.