The key to unraveling the mysteries of the brain may lie in getting better real time data from that cluster of neurons. We have effective imaging technologies like functional MRI and positron emission tomography (PET), which can even be used to interact with machines. However, an MRI machine isn’t very portable. Science has been exploring the role of implantable devices for years, but a new paper from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley proposes a new kind of implantable sensor — intelligent dust that can infiltrate the brain, record data, and communicate with the outside world.

The preliminary design was undertaken by Berkeley’s Dongjin Seo and colleagues. They describe a network of tiny sensors that could be introduced into the brain. Each package would be little more than a speck 100 micrometers (one-tenth of a millimeter) across, which is why the team decided to call it neural dust.

The smart particles would all contain a standard (but very small) CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons. Rather than design a microscopic battery that would only die after a short time, the researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back out via high-frequency sound waves. The entire package would be coated in a polymer, thus making it bio-neutral.

Ultrasound would likely be considerably safer than beaming electromagnetic waves back and forth. Ultrasound transfers much less energy to surrounding tissues — Seo and company believe it could keep the neural network charged and connected without heating the brain or skull (which is always good to hear).

The patient could have thousands of these devices nestled in their brain tissue, but a few additional components would be needed. A larger subdural transceiver would send the ultrasound waves to the dust and pick up the return signal. The internal transceiver would be wirelessly connected to an external device on the scalp (again, via ultrasound) that contains data processing hardware, a long range transmitter, storage, and a battery. It would be considerably easier to replace this external transmitter than a thousand microscopic sensors in the brain.

Intelligent dust could basically act like an MRI running in your brain all the time. It would enable easy monitoring of neurological activity for the purposes of research and medical monitoring. Maybe we’ll even work out a form of science-fictional telepathy or mind reading with embedded intelligent dust. The researchers also see this technology as a way to enable brain-machine interfaces. The scale of interaction could be much greater than current rudimentary methods with the increased resolution provided by thousands of tiny smart particles beaming your brain waves back.

If this sounds a little bit like something from the a post-singularity world, you might be right. There are still some problems to be worked out before this technology could become a reality. More powerful antennae would need to be designed on the microscopic scale for the smart dust particles to send and receive ultrasound waves. Increasing the efficiency of transceivers and piezoelectric materials will also be a necessity to avoid the aforementioned brain warming effects. Perhaps most importantly, researchers need to find a safe and effective way to deliver the tiny sensors to the brain.

This isn’t a technology you’re going to encounter in a year to two, but maybe this kind of implantable data collection will exist by the time you really need it. Of course, the robots might also use it to control our thoughts when they take over, but that’s the risk you take with technology.

Now read: First whole-brain activity map created, and it looks marvelous

Research paper: arxiv.org/abs/1307.2196 – “Neural Dust: An Ultrasonic, Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain-Machine Interfaces”