Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton, United States.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
Elife. 2020 Oct 22;9:e59716. doi: 10.7554/eLife.59716.
The use of Neuropixels probes for chronic neural recordings is in its infancy and initial studies leave questions about long-term stability and probe reusability unaddressed. Here, we demonstrate a new approach for chronic Neuropixels recordings over a period of months in freely moving rats. Our approach allows multiple probes per rat and multiple cycles of probe reuse. We found that hundreds of units could be recorded for multiple months, but that yields depended systematically on anatomical position. Explanted probes displayed a small increase in noise compared to unimplanted probes, but this was insufficient to impair future single-unit recordings. We conclude that cost-effective, multi-region, and multi-probe Neuropixels recordings can be carried out with high yields over multiple months in rats or other similarly sized animals. Our methods and observations may facilitate the standardization of chronic recording from Neuropixels probes in freely moving animals.
神经像素探针用于慢性神经记录仍处于起步阶段，初步研究并未解决长期稳定性和探针可重复使用性的问题。在这里，我们展示了一种在自由活动的大鼠中进行数月慢性神经像素记录的新方法。我们的方法允许每只大鼠使用多个探针，并可以多次重复使用探针。我们发现，数百个单元可以被记录多个月，但产量系统地取决于解剖位置。与未植入的探针相比，植入的探针的噪声略有增加，但这不足以损害未来的单细胞记录。我们的结论是，在大鼠或其他类似大小的动物中，使用经济高效、多区域和多探针的神经像素记录，可以在多个月内实现高产率。我们的方法和观察结果可能有助于在自由活动的动物中标准化使用神经像素探针进行慢性记录。
