Does a probe heat the brain, and what temperature would damage it? · Lobeworks/17

Little, by design: the power-hungry electronics sit in the base, outside the tissue, and the shank carries only electrodes, switches and tracks.

Does a probe heat the brain, and what temperature would damage it?

Little, by design: the power-hungry electronics sit in the base, outside the tissue, and the shank carries only electrodes, switches and tracks. Neurons change their firing with a degree or two of warming, which is why implants are held to about 1 to 2 °C (the implant standard ISO 14708 caps a surface at 2 °C above body temperature). Damage is temperature times time: sustained heating towards 42 to 43 °C begins to denature proteins, and the dose is counted in equivalent minutes at 43 °C (CEM43). The damage every probe does cause is mechanical, the insertion itself.