FIGURE 1.

Extracellular matrix in brain. The extracellular matrix (ECM) in the brain is divided into three major components. The basement membrane (basal lamina) which lies around the cerebral vasculature, the perinueonal net which surround neuronal cell bodies and dendrites, and the neural interstitial matrix which are diffusely distributed between cells in the parenchyma. The blue, purple, and yellow cells depict astrocytes, microglia, and neurons, respectively. The proteins that make up the composition of the ECM are all tens to hundreds of nanometer in radius, inspiring the next generation nano-architecture style neural electrodes.