Active silicon stimulating microelectrodes and their use in the central auditory system

This paper describes the design of silicon intracortical stimulating microelectrodes for mapping of the functional organization in the central nervous system and potential neural prosthetic applications. Active microelectrodes with different configurations have been developed to facilitate various applications. In-vivo experiments were conducted in selected areas (auditory cortex, DCN, IC) in the auditory pathway of guinea pig models. The stimulating microelectrodes are capable of stimulating neural tissue with controllable current stimuli and selectively stimulating neurons in the DCN to elicit corresponding neural responses in the IC.