EPFL's Low-Power Chip Measures Coordination Between Brain Regions
EPFL researchers built a low-power chip that tracks how activity across brain regions falls into step, without pretending to read your thoughts.
The actual story.
EPFL researchers have developed LogSync, a neural chip that measures how activity across different brain regions synchronizes. Highlighted by the university on October 23, the chip processes neural signals using less than 200 microwatts of power. Researchers evaluated it with existing human brain recordings and an experiment in a rat.
Instead of examining activity in only one region, LogSync extracts information about relationships between signals. Its algorithms use those measurements to distinguish cognitive and emotional states in the evaluated recordings and can generate triggers for stimulation. That is different from reading thoughts or demonstrating an effective psychiatric treatment.
The engineering challenge is doing useful processing within an implant's limited power budget. The team designed the hardware and algorithms together around that constraint, making the work relevant to researchers developing adaptive brain-stimulation systems. Whether the approach improves treatment outcomes will require further clinical evidence.
The advance is efficient measurement of neural coordination, not a proven new therapy.
Receipts, not rumors.
Read the original reporting: EPFL; IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (University of Minnesota publication record)
The reporting above provides context. Illustrations are editorial interpretations, not source photographs.
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