RAPIDO Brain Implant Controlled From Chicago Reaches South Korea

Could a scientist carry out an intervention in a brain experiment on the opposite side of the globe without ever leaving their desk?

Researchers have now shown this is possible, transmitting commands from Chicago to a wireless brain implant in Daejeon, South Korea, 10,596 kilometres (6,584 miles) away.

The command was sent over the internet to a computer in the Korean lab, which then transmitted it wirelessly to the implant. On average, the system reacted in roughly 109 milliseconds.

This intercontinental trial was an engineering proof of concept, demonstrating that the device could be controlled from a different country.

RAPIDO enables remote brain research

Controlling equipment over long distances could be useful for brain research. A researcher's presence in an experimental area, or their approach towards an animal to operate apparatus, can alter the animal's behaviour. A remotely triggered device could limit that disruption while enabling scientists in separate locations to take part in the same experiments.

The system, known as RAPIDO, was created by researchers at KAIST and Yonsei University. Their work was reported in a study published in Science Advances.

RAPIDO is small enough for a freely moving rat to carry and can undertake two distinct jobs within the brain. It can release a substance through a minute channel and produce light using a miniature LED. These functions can be operated independently and programmed beforehand.

Compared with previous implants, RAPIDO includes a refillable cartridge and can administer scheduled doses and light via the internet.

"Our brain implant allows researchers to carry out repeated, long-term, and remotely controlled drug and optical interventions in freely moving animals without repeatedly handling the animal or replacing the implant through additional surgery," KAIST electrical engineer Jae-Woong Jeong, who led the study, told ScienceAlert.

"This makes it possible to conduct longitudinal experiments with less direct intervention and reduced influence from experimenter presence."

Having established the remote link, the researchers assessed the two functions in separate experiments involving rats.

Drug delivery and behavioural effects in rats

The first experiments examined the implant's drug-delivery capability.

Different doses of cocaine were delivered by the implant directly into the nucleus accumbens, a brain area associated with reward-related behaviour.

The doses resulted in matching changes to the rats' movement, with the effects replicated two, three and four weeks after implantation.

This indicated that the implant could repeatedly provide controlled doses and create measurable behavioural effects across several weeks. It was not a test of addiction treatment.

Light stimulation and learned preference

A second experiment investigated whether light could influence the preferences the rats learned. It used optogenetics, a technique that causes selected cells, or processes within them, to respond to light. ScienceAlert has previously reported on experiments in which artificial neurons communicated with genetically modified living neurons through light.

For this experiment, cocaine was injected into the rats' abdomens rather than delivered through the implant, separating the impact of light from that of the drug delivery. Rats that received cocaine without light subsequently favoured the compartment linked to the drug.

In a separate group, illumination from the implant activated the RhoA signalling pathway during conditioning. Those rats did not form the same preference for the cocaine-associated compartment.

"Together, these experiments demonstrate the platform's ability to investigate causal links between specific neural manipulations and behavior," Jeong told ScienceAlert.

The findings do not show that the device treated cocaine addiction. These were proof-of-concept studies in rats, and preventing a learned place preference is not the same as treating an existing addiction.

"The biggest challenge is demonstrating long-term safety and reliability in the human brain," Jeong told ScienceAlert.

A clinical version would need additional testing of its biocompatibility, packaging, drug delivery and fail-safe controls. Optogenetics would pose a further difficulty, as light-sensitive genes would have to be delivered safely.

"This brain implant is therefore best viewed at this stage as a research platform that could help develop and evaluate future therapeutic strategies, rather than as a clinical device itself," said Jeong.

Wireless brain implants capable of supplying drugs and light are not completely new. Earlier work involving KAIST engineer Jae-Woong Jeong created smartphone-controlled implants with replaceable drug cartridges for freely moving mice.

RAPIDO's key development is the combination of several features: repeatable drug delivery, targeted light stimulation, programmable operation and internet control.

The study consequently delivered three clear findings. A brain implant in Korea responded to commands transmitted from the United States. The device repeatedly administered cocaine for as long as four weeks. In a separate test, activating light stopped rats from developing a preference for the cocaine-associated compartment.

Taken together, these findings establish RAPIDO as a remotely controlled research tool for altering specific brain processes and measuring the resulting behavioural effects.

The research appeared in Science Advances.

This article was fact-checked by Fiona MacDonald and edited by Fiona MacDonald. Although we take pride in our process, we are only human. If you notice an error, please let us know.