A Chinese research team has developed a stretchable, flexible microelectrode capable of high-throughput neural signal recording while conforming to brain biomechanics.

The breakthrough, led by Fang Ying, a senior researcher at the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR, Beijing), was published on February 5 in Nature Electronics.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) establish direct communication pathways between the brain and external devices, and are expected to enable deeper integration between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Primate brains, including those of macaques and humans, exhibit substantially greater pulsations and intracranial displacement than rodent brains. This means that achieving long-term stable interactions in primate brains remains one of the most challenging scientific problems in brain-computer interfaces.

To address this bottleneck, Fang's team proposed a novel high-throughput stretchable electrode architecture. Traditional linear electrodes rely solely on material elongation under strain and are prone to shifting or even being pulled out of neural tissue entirely. In contrast, the stretchable electrode decouples strain by converting tensile stress into bending and twisting deformations. As a result, once implanted, the electrode can dynamically follow brain pulsations and intracranial movements, ensuring long-term stability within brain tissue.

To verify implantation reliability and long-term stability, the team conducted systematic experiments in macaque monkeys. The results showed that the stretchable flexible electrode enabled stable long-term recordings in the primate brain. More significantly, after implanting a 256-channel array, the researchers successfully recorded 257 single-neuron signals and achieved high-precision decoding of motor intentions. 

This suggests that, with the same channel count, maintaining a high neuronal yield over time enables continuous capture of more effective signals, thereby offering more durable and higher-quality clinical benefits for patients.

The study lays an important technological foundation for the long-term application of invasive brain-computer interfaces in primates and eventually humans.