Brain surgery is notoriously difficult, after all your brain is responsible for managing the function of every other part of your body. But now neuroscientists in Switzerland say, extremely invasive brain surgery may not be needed in many cases moving forward, as they’ve developed a new way to monitor brain function by inserting a newly developed device through a tiny hole in the skull.
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00:00Brain surgery is notoriously dangerous.
00:05After all, your brain is responsible for managing the functions of every other part of your
00:09body.
00:10But now neuroscientists in Switzerland say extremely invasive brain surgery may not be
00:14needed in many cases moving forward, as they've developed a new way to monitor brain function
00:19by inserting a newly developed device through a tiny hole in the skull.
00:22Here's Professor Stephanie Lacour, one of the device's developers, to explain.
00:26So we have developed soft electrode array designed to record information from the surface
00:32of the brain, and these electrodes are so soft that they can be inserted just between
00:37the surface of the brain and the skull, and this could find application for recording
00:42of epilepsy seizures.
00:44So how big is the hole?
00:45Only around one centimeter.
00:46They say one of the biggest challenges was finding the right material, explaining that
00:50they were initially approached by a neurosurgeon asking for a less invasive option, as current
00:54methods involve cutting a large portion of the skull and removing it, then placing electrodes
00:58individually.
00:59Now they simply drill a hole and insert the soft-bodied flower-like device, which is then
01:03articulated via a liquid pressure system, allowing them to fan out the petals, positioning
01:08each in the exact right position on the surface of the brain.