美国霍华德·休斯医学院Timothy D. Harris等研究人员合作开发出用于稳定长期记录大脑活动的小型高密度探针。2021年4月16日，国际知名学术期刊《科学》发表了这一成果。
测量跨时间尺度的神经处理动力学需要在几毫秒和几个月的时间内跟踪成千上万的单个神经元。为了满足这一需求，研究人员将Neuropixels 2.0探针与新设计的分析算法一起推出。该探针具有5000多个位点，并且被小型化，从而方便在小型哺乳动物中进行长期植入以及在不受约束的行为过程中进行记录。在六个实验室的小鼠和大鼠中，长时间范围内的高质量记录能够可靠地获得。
将改进的位点密度和排列方式与新创建的数据处理方法相结合，研究人员可以对大脑运动进行自动事后校正，从而允许从同一神经元进行记录超过2个月。这些探针和算法可以在自由行为期间从数千个位置进行稳定记录，即使是在小动物（如小鼠）中也是如此。
附：英文原文
Title: Neuropixels 2.0: A miniaturized high-density probe for stable, long-term brain recordings
Author: Nicholas A. Steinmetz, Cagatay Aydin, Anna Lebedeva, Michael Okun, Marius Pachitariu, Marius Bauza, Maxime Beau, Jai Bhagat, Claudia Bhm, Martijn Broux, Susu Chen, Jennifer Colonell, Richard J. Gardner, Bill Karsh, Fabian Kloosterman, Dimitar Kostadinov, Carolina Mora-Lopez, John O’Callaghan, Junchol Park, Jan Putzeys, Britton Sauerbrei, Rik J. J. van Daal, Abraham Z. Vollan, Shiwei Wang, Marleen Welkenhuysen, Zhiwen Ye, Joshua T. Dudman, Barundeb Dutta, Adam W. Hantman, Kenneth D. Harris, Albert K. Lee, Edvard I. Moser, John O’Keefe, Alfonso Renart, Karel Svoboda, Michael Husser, Sebastian Haesler, Matteo Carandini, Timothy D. Harris
Issue&Volume: 2021/04/16
Abstract: Measuring the dynamics of neural processing across time scales requires following the spiking of thousands of individual neurons over milliseconds and months. To address this need, we introduce the Neuropixels 2.0 probe together with newly designed analysis algorithms. The probe has more than 5000 sites and is miniaturized to facilitate chronic implants in small mammals and recording during unrestrained behavior. High-quality recordings over long time scales were reliably obtained in mice and rats in six laboratories. Improved site density and arrangement combined with newly created data processing methods enable automatic post hoc correction for brain movements, allowing recording from the same neurons for more than 2 months. These probes and algorithms enable stable recordings from thousands of sites during free behavior, even in small animals such as mice.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abf4588
Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6539/eabf4588