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Weekly Signal: 37 | Neurotech Moves Home and Wireless
BCIs, Stimulation, and Scale
Ricardo Albornoz
December 13, 2025
Table of Contents
🧠 Weekly Signal
Neurotechnology News | Dec 6–Dec 12, 2025
Let's cut through the noise this week!
This week, we witnessed a major leap in wireless and at-home neurotechnology, alongside continued progress in commercial funding and clinical deployment. While policy conversations expanded into global digital governance and neuro-ethics, the bottom line is clear: neurotech is rapidly moving out of the lab and into everyday use—forcing regulation, trust, and infrastructure to catch up.
🧠 SCIENCE & CLINICAL TRIALS
🟢 FDA approves at-home brain stimulation for depression
Published: December 8, 2025
Read more ➡️Scientific American / Technology Networks / FDA Approval
Flow Neuroscience received FDA clearance for the FL-100 transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) device based on a 174-participant Phase 2 randomized controlled trial showing 2–3× higher remission rates versus sham treatment. The device targets the prefrontal cortex and is the first FDA-cleared at-home neurostimulation treatment for major depressive disorder.
💡 Big Picture: This approval shifts neuromodulation from clinic-based to consumer-accessible treatment, raising regulatory questions about home-based brain stimulation protocols and the medical device-wellness product boundary.
🟢 65,536-electrode wireless subdural BCI demonstrated in large animals
Published: December 8, 2025
Read more ➡️ Science Daily / Nature
Researchers reported a 50-µm-thick micro-electrocorticography (micro-ECoG) system integrating 65,536 electrodes with up to 1,024 selectable recording channels, plus wireless power and telemetry. The paper reports chronic recordings for up to two weeks in pigs and up to two months in behaving nonhuman primates.
💡 Big Picture: High-density, wireless cortical sensing is moving from bench prototypes toward systems that can survive realistic implant conditions.
🟢 Wireless transcranial optogenetics generates learned “artificial perception” in mice
Published: December 8, 2025
Read more ➡️ Medical Xpress / Nature
A fully implantable platform used patterned micro–light-emitting diodes (µ-LEDs) to stimulate genetically sensitized neurons through the skull, and mice learned to interpret the patterns to complete behavioral tasks. The study frames patterned stimulation as a controllable way to write information into cortical activity, under strict experimental constraints.
💡 Big Picture: This is a concrete step toward higher-resolution “write-in” paradigms—useful for prosthetic feedback research, while remaining far from human-ready methods.
🟢 Wireless BCI Implant Prototype Debuts
Published: December 8, 2025
Read more ➡️Science Daily / Columbia Engineering
Columbia's Brain Interfacing Silicon Chip (BISC) integrates 65,536 electrodes and 1,024 simultaneous recording channels on a 50-micrometer-thick CMOS chip—roughly the thickness of a human hair. The entire system occupies approximately 3 mm³ (1/1000th the size of conventional devices) and achieves 100 Mbps wireless data transfer, exceeding comparable wireless BCIs by over 100-fold for real-time AI-powered decoding.
💡 Big Picture: This design reduces implantation risks, accelerating BCI adoption in neurology clinics.
💼 INDUSTRY & STARTUPS
🟢 Neuralink hires former FDA neurological devices director for medical affairs role
Neuralink announced David McMullen will lead medical affairs, after serving as director in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration office overseeing neurological and physical medicine devices. The move is legal, but it increases attention on conflict-of-interest safeguards and transparency around implantable BCI trial governance.
💡 Big Picture: As invasive neurotech scales, governance signals like regulator-to-industry transitions can shape trust as much as technical progress.🟢 Subsense expands financing to $27M for nanoparticle-based “non-surgical BCI” R&D
🟢 Subsense expands financing to $27M for nanoparticle-based “non-surgical BCI” R&D
Published: December 11, 2025
Read more ➡️MassDevice / BusinessWire
Subsense reported an additional $10M bringing total financing to $27M, aimed at accelerating materials R&D, in vivo biosafety programs, nanoparticle design, and miniaturization. The company’s claim centers on bidirectional interfacing via nanoparticles rather than implanted electrode arrays.
💡 Big Picture: Investors are diversifying bets beyond implants—watch for rigorous preclinical validation, safety data, and reproducible signal quality.
🟢 Neupulse Launches Wearable for Tourette Syndrome
Published: December 10, 2025
Read more ➡️ 24 7 Biopharma / Drug Development
Neupulse released a wrist-worn device delivering median nerve stimulation to suppress tics on demand in Tourette syndrome patients. User trials showed 40% tic reduction within 30 minutes of activation.
💡 Big Picture: At-home neuromodulation devices like this shift management from clinics to daily life.
🟢 Cambridge NeuroWorks Launches UK Neurotech Fund
Published: December 8, 2025
Read more ➡️ Cambridge Independent / Cambridge Neuroworks
Cambridge NeuroWorks initiated a nationwide fund offering grants up to £250,000 for neurotech proof-of-concept projects in neuromodulation and imaging. Applications open through March 2026, prioritizing 10 early-stage ventures.
💡 Big Picture: Such funds bridge exploratory research to commercialization, bolstering Europe's neurotech ecosystem.
🏛️ POLICY & ETHICS
🟢 Neurotech Enters Global Internet Governance
Published: December 12, 2025
Read more CIGI Podcast / FrontiersIn.org
Frontiers in Digital Health outlined policy intersections between neurotech data flows and internet infrastructure. It proposes updates to international standards to curb cognitive surveillance risks for 8 billion users.
💡 Big Picture: Aligning neural data with digital rights frameworks prevents fragmented global regulations.
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