New Device Detects Brain Waves in Mini Brains Mimicking Early Human Development

The flower-shaped device wraps around brain organoids and maps nearly all electrical activity.

Pea-sized brain blobs are a chatty bunch. Packed with neurons that spark with electrical activity, brain organoids—or “mini brains”—are a now popular way to study the human brain. Some organoids model the brain’s wiring during early development. Others, made from patients’ skin cells, retain DNA mutations that could lead to schizophrenia or autism. Scientists studying mini brains hope to find patterns associated with diseases and test ways to fix them. But it’s harder to record activity in organoids than neurons lying flat in a dish. Traditional electrode arrays are too large and stiff.…

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• Dieter Schoening

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