Action Potential Monitoring Using Neuronanorobots: Neuroelectric Nanosensors

Abstract

Neuronanorobotics, a key future medical technology that can enable the preservation of human brain information, requires appropriate nanosensors. Action potentials encode the most resource-intensive functional brain data. This paper presents a theoretical design for electrical nanosensors intended for use in neuronanorobots to provide non-destructive, in vivo, continuous, real-time, single-spike monitoring of action potentials initiated and processed within the ~86 × 109 neurons of the human brain as intermediated through the ~2.4 × 1014 human brain synapses. The proposed ~3375 nm3 FET-based neuroelectric nanosensors could detect action potentials with a temporal resolution of at least 0.1 ms, enough for waveform characterization even at the highest human neuron firing rates of 800 Hz.