PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Elton Ho AU - Mark Hettick AU - Demetrios Papageorgiou AU - Adam J. Poole AU - Manuel Monge AU - Maria Vomero AU - Kate R. Gelman AU - Timothy Hanson AU - Vanessa Tolosa AU - Michael Mager AU - Benjamin I. Rapoport TI - The Layer 7 Cortical Interface: A Scalable and Minimally Invasive Brain–Computer Interface Platform AID - 10.1101/2022.01.02.474656 DP - 2022 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2022.01.02.474656 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/02/2022.01.02.474656.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/02/2022.01.02.474656.full AB - Progress toward the development of brain–computer interfaces has signaled the potential to restore, replace, or augment lost or impaired neurological function in a variety of disease states. Existing brain–computer interfaces rely on invasive surgical procedures or brain-penetrating electrodes, which limit addressable applications of the technology and the number of eligible patients. Here we describe a novel approach to constructing a neural interface, comprising conformable thin-film electrode arrays and a minimally invasive surgical delivery system that together facilitate communication with large portions of the cortical surface in bidirectional fashion (enabling both recording and stimulation). We demonstrate the safety and feasibility of rapidly delivering reversible implants containing over 2,000 microelectrodes to multiple functional regions in both hemispheres of the Göttingen minipig brain simultaneously, without requiring a craniotomy, at an effective insertion rate faster than 40 ms per channel, without damaging the cortical surface. We further demonstrate the performance of this system for high-density neural recording, focal cortical stimulation, and accurate neural decoding. Such a system promises to accelerate efforts to better decode and encode neural signals, and to expand the patient population that could benefit from neural interface technology.Competing Interest StatementThis work was funded by Precision Neuroscience Corporation.