Advancements in Neural Recording Circuits: Review of Nerve Biopotentials, and Neural Recording Circuit Architectures

Peripheral nerve injuries pose significant health challenges leading to loss of motor control and sensation. These injuries can result from trauma, surgery, tumors, and neurological disorders. Peripheral nerve injuries mainly lead to paralysis such as facial paralysis. Patients with facial paralysis often face loss of facial expression control affecting their quality of life. Research studies have explored peripheral nerve recording to address these challenges, aiming to understand nerve impulses and develop effective neural interfaces for functional restoration. Neural amplifier chips characterized by low noise, high gain, and small size have been integrated with nerve cuff electrodes to capture neural signals efficiently. This paper reviews the applications of cuff electrodes simulating the facial nerve for facial muscle contractions and various neural recording system architectures interfaced with a peripheral nerve cuff electrode. Diverse types of cuff electrodes and their configuration have been drawn pointing out their advantages and limitations. Neural amplifier topologies susceptible to neural recording are outlined with their main characteristics including noise, speed, and power consumption relative to their general architectures.