https://www.cas.cn/syky/202602/t20260212_5101722.shtml

https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(25)00928-6

Teams at the CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology and other institutions have established mesoscale primate optogenetic technology, achieving long-term, precise, and stable stimulation and behavioral induction of the primate cerebral cortex.

Capitalizing on recent advancements in microLED devices and opsins, we introduce a mesoscale optogenetics system that enables flexible million-pixel stimulation over a centimeter-sized area of the primate cortex. Stimulation from single pixels elicited distinct responses centered at the corresponding sites, allowing for cortical stimulation with arbitrary patterns at high resolution. We constructed a head-mounted system targeted at the monkey’s primary visual cortex and showed that phosphenes could be accurately and robustly evoked over more than a year. Thus, the mesoscale optogenetics approach offers exceptional flexibility and robustness in cortical stimulation and could be particularly relevant to brain areas with prominent mesoscale columnar organization, such as the primate visual cortex.

This technology lays a foundation for primate brain cognition research and optical brain-computer interface research.