Truly large-scale electrophysiology simultaneous recording of thousands of individual neurons in multiple brain areas remains an elusive goal of neuroscience. The traditional approach of studying single neurons in isolation assumes that the brain can be understood one component at a time. However, in order to fully understand the function of whole brain circuits, it is essential to observe the interactions of large numbers of neurons in multiple brain areas simultaneously with high spatiotemporal resolution. This project will establish a complete system for multi-scale electrophysiology in awake, freely behaving mice, using state-of-the-art nano neural interfaces comprising of tiny silicon probes integrated with on- chip optical waveguides and compliant monolithic polymer cables connected to a unique light-weight head-mounted recording system built around a commercially available application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that has been custom designed for electrophysiological recordings, combining signal amplification, filtering, signal multiplexing, and digital sampling on a single chip. We demonstrate the high-resolution excitation of channelrhodopsin-expressing neurons imaged on a two-photon microscope by evoking action potentials in different parts of cortex. The entire process, including post-fabrication system integration, has been designed to leverage existing consumer manufacturing processes, making our probe technology mass- producible and widely accessible at low cost.
Project end date: 07/18/16