Imagine a brain implant that could be placed without surgically opening a person's skull, but instead through a simple injection in the arm.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are working on microscopic, wireless electronic chips that can travel through the bloodstream and self-implant in a targeted region of the brain.
In a study with lab mice, the team found that the chips -- each one-billionth the length of a grain of rice -- can indeed identify and migrate to a specific brain region without human guidance.
Once in place, these chips can provide electrical stimulation of the sort now used to treat conditions like Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and depression, researchers said.
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