Gao Hongying, Solages Camille de, Lena Clément
Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, IBENS, Paris F-75005, France.
J Physiol Paris. 2012 May-Aug;106(3-4):128-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2011.10.005. Epub 2011 Oct 28.
Multi-unit recordings with tetrodes have been used in brain studies for many years, but surprisingly, scarcely in the cerebellum. The cerebellum is subdivided in multiple small functional zones. Understanding the proper features of the cerebellar computations requires a characterization of neuronal activity within each area. By allowing simultaneous recordings of neighboring cells, tetrodes provide a helpful technique to study the dynamics of the cerebellar local networks. Here, we discuss experimental configurations to optimize such recordings and demonstrate their use in the different layers of the cerebellar cortex. We show that tetrodes can also be used to perform simultaneous recordings from neighboring units in freely moving rats using a custom-made drive, thus permitting studies of cerebellar network dynamics in a large variety of behavioral conditions.
使用四极管进行多单元记录在脑研究中已经应用多年，但令人惊讶的是，在小脑研究中却很少使用。小脑被细分为多个小的功能区。要理解小脑计算的适当特征，需要对每个区域内的神经元活动进行表征。通过允许同时记录相邻细胞，四极管提供了一种有助于研究小脑局部网络动态的技术。在这里，我们讨论优化此类记录的实验配置，并展示它们在小脑皮质不同层中的应用。我们表明，使用定制驱动器，四极管还可用于在自由活动的大鼠中对相邻单元进行同步记录，从而能够在多种行为条件下研究小脑网络动态。
