Shin Soowon, Kim Jae-Hyun, Jeong Joonsoo, Gwon Tae Mok, Lee Seung-Hee, Kim Sung June
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Inter-University Semiconductor Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
J Neurosci Methods. 2017 Feb 15;278:25-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2016.12.017. Epub 2016 Dec 29.
Ideally, neural probes should have channels with a three-dimensional (3-D) configuration to record the activities of 3-D neural circuits. Many types of 3-D neural probes have been developed; however, most of them were designed as an array of multiple shanks with electrodes located along one side of the shanks.
We developed a novel liquid crystal polymer (LCP)-based neural probe with four-sided electrodes. This probe has electrodes on four sides of the shank, i.e., the front, back and two sidewalls. To generate the proposed configuration of the electrodes, we used a thermal lamination process involving LCP films and laser micromachining.
The proposed novel four-sided neural probe, was used to successfully perform in vivo multichannel neural recording in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex.
The multichannel neural recording showed that the proposed four-sided neural probe can record spiking activities from a more diverse neuronal population than single-sided probes. This was confirmed by a pairwise Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson's r) analysis and a cross-correlation analysis.
The developed four-sided neural probe can be used to record various signals from a complex neural network.
理想情况下，神经探针应具有三维（3-D）配置的通道，以记录三维神经回路的活动。已经开发了多种类型的三维神经探针；然而，它们中的大多数被设计为多个柄的阵列，电极位于柄的一侧。
我们开发了一种新型的基于液晶聚合物（LCP）的四面电极神经探针。该探针在柄的四个面上有电极，即正面、背面和两个侧壁。为了生成所提议的电极配置，我们使用了涉及LCP薄膜和激光微加工的热层压工艺。
所提议的新型四面神经探针成功用于在小鼠初级体感皮层进行体内多通道神经记录。
多通道神经记录表明，所提议的四面神经探针比单面探针能从更多样化的神经元群体记录尖峰活动。这通过成对皮尔逊相关系数（Pearson's r）分析和互相关分析得到证实。
所开发的四面神经探针可用于记录复杂神经网络的各种信号。
