The Stentrode, developed by Australian neurotechnology company Synchron, represents a fundamentally different approach to brain-computer interfacing. Instead of drilling through the skull and placing electrodes on or in the brain, the Stentrode is delivered through the jugular vein using standard endovascular techniques — similar to how cardiac stents are implanted. The device, a small mesh tube studded with electrodes, is navigated through the venous system and deployed in a blood vessel adjacent to the motor cortex, where it records neural signals through the vessel wall.
This approach offers a compelling safety profile. The procedure takes about two hours and can be performed by an interventional neuroradiologist rather than a neurosurgeon. There is no craniotomy, no direct brain tissue contact, and the risk profile resembles that of existing endovascular procedures performed routinely in hospitals worldwide. Synchron has conducted human trials in both Australia and the United States, with participants using the Stentrode to control computers for texting, emailing, and online banking.
The trade-off is signal quality — recording through a blood vessel wall yields signals comparable to ECoG but inferior to penetrating electrode arrays. The Stentrode currently captures local field potentials rather than individual neuron spikes, limiting its information bandwidth. However, for applications like text communication and computer control, this bandwidth may be sufficient. Synchron has positioned the Stentrode as a device that can scale to large patient populations precisely because it avoids the barriers of brain surgery. For deeper coverage, see BCIIntel.