Scientists at the Mayo Clinic and other institutions have developed a new device that can detect neurotransmitters quickly and locally in the brain, which they hope will help make deep brain stimulation (DBS) more effective and shed light on how it works.

The device consists of a sensor electrode that can be implanted along with the DBS electrode and detects the concentration of neurotransmitters released from neurons. The sensor is attached to an external controller, which analyzes the signals and wirelessly sends the data to a remote laptop for further analysis.