MRI: Acquisition of a High-Density Microelectrode Array for Recording and Stimulating Hundreds of Neurons

MRI：获取用于记录和刺激数百个神经元的高密度微电极阵列

• 批准号: 1429500
• 负责人: John Beggs
• 金额: $ 9.16万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-01 至 2017-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1429500&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; Density; Microelectrode; Array

An award is made to Indiana University, Bloomington, to acquire a 512 micro-electrode array instrument (512MEA) for recording and stimulating electrical activity in samples of brain tissue. The 512MEA can be used to measure how groups of several hundred neurons send information back and forth to each other. The ability to map information transfer in networks of this size is expected to be very valuable. Many theories predict that information transfer will change in networks of hundreds of neurons after learning, after exposure to drugs of addiction or toxins, after seizures and after traumatic injury. Other theories predict that brain networks process information in a nearly optimal way, an idea that has remained largely untested. Use of the 512MEA is therefore expected to provide new knowledge relevant to understanding how learning occurs, how drug addiction begins, how poisons affect brain health, how epileptic seizures start, how the brain responds to injury, and how the brain optimizes information processing. Ultimately, this work could benefit society by helping to improve teaching and learning in schools, by helping in the treatment of epilepsy patients, people exposed to harmful substances, war veterans, and by suggesting new ways to design brain-like computers. To maximize the number of students and laboratories using this device, it will be rotated between the Department of Physics, the Department of Brain and Psychological Sciences, and the Medical School. The research and training opportunities that are opened by the 512MEA center on two topics of investigation: (1) emergent properties, and (2) information transfer. Emergent Properties: Many basic emergent properties of the brain like pattern recognition, associative memory, formation of cell assemblies, neuronal avalanches, synchronized pulses, and collective computations are predicted to arise first in populations of hundreds of interconnected neurons. Although most of these phenomena have been predicted for decades, they have remained largely unexplored for lack of proper instrumentation. The 512MEA would allow all of these topics to be researched in detail, many for the first time. Information transfer: It is almost completely unknown how information transfer differs in networks from naive animals and those that have learned; between networks exposed to neuro-active substances and those that have not; between developing networks and those that have matured. Because the 512MEA can record neural activity at millisecond resolution, it can identify which brain cell became active first in a chain of activity. This ability is crucial, as it will indicate the direction of influence between neurons. Optical methods of recording activity between hundreds of neurons often do not have this capability. The 512MEA can thus permit many of these topics to be researched for the first time.

印第安纳大学布鲁明顿分校获得了一台512微电极阵列仪器(512MEA)，用于记录和刺激脑组织样本中的电活动。512MEA可以用来测量由数百个神经元组成的组如何相互发送信息。在这种规模的网络中映射信息传输的能力预计将非常有价值。许多理论预测，在学习、接触成瘾或毒素药物、癫痫发作和创伤后，数百个神经元网络中的信息传递将发生变化。其他理论预测，大脑网络以一种近乎最佳的方式处理信息，这一观点在很大程度上仍未得到检验。因此，512MEA的使用有望提供与理解学习如何发生、药物成瘾如何开始、毒物如何影响大脑健康、癫痫发作如何开始、大脑如何对损伤做出反应以及大脑如何优化信息处理等相关的新知识。最终，这项工作可以通过帮助改善学校的教学和学习，通过帮助治疗癫痫患者、接触有害物质的人、退伍军人，以及通过提出设计类似大脑的计算机的新方法来造福社会。为了最大限度地增加使用这种设备的学生和实验室的数量，它将在物理系、脑与心理科学系和医学院之间轮换。512MEA开启的研究和培训机会集中在两个调查主题上：(1)紧急性质，(2)信息传递。涌现特性：大脑的许多基本涌现特性，如模式识别、联想记忆、细胞组合的形成、神经元雪崩、同步脉冲和集体计算，预计首先出现在数百个相互连接的神经元的群体中。虽然这些现象中的大多数已经被预测了几十年，但由于缺乏适当的工具，它们在很大程度上仍然没有得到研究。512MEA将允许对所有这些主题进行详细研究，其中许多是第一次。信息传递：几乎完全不知道网络中的信息传递与幼稚动物和那些已经学会的动物之间的不同；暴露于神经活性物质的网络和没有神经活性物质的网络之间的不同；发展中的网络和已经成熟的网络之间的不同。因为512MEA可以以毫秒的分辨率记录神经活动，所以它可以识别出在一系列活动中哪个脑细胞首先活跃起来。这种能力是至关重要的，因为它将指示神经元之间的影响方向。记录数百个神经元之间活动的光学方法通常没有这种能力。因此，512MEA可以首次允许对其中许多主题进行研究。