Nature inspired conceptual design of a micro neural probe for deep brain stimulation

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an exciting method to treat human movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, through placement of high frequency stimulating electrodes in the region of the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus. To overcome the drawbacks of currently available electrodes in the market for DBS, a conceptual design of a micro neural probe is proposed to reduce the size of the cross section and without affecting the stimulation effects. The design concept is inspired by mosquito fascicles. Instead of using the 1.25 mm circular probes, a 0.5 mm semi-circular probe is proposed for use in this study. The neural probe is designed to penetrate through a foundation structure, which provides a function similar to the protective sheath surrounding the fascicle to provide support to the beam. In such a way, the instantaneous strut length bearing the buckling load can be significantly reduced. Simulation analysis showed that such a probe can withstand an axial force of 2 N without buckling under a safety factor of 5, which is above the magnitude of the resistance force of around 1.6 N in the probe penetration.