A scalable system for high-throughput and longitudinal electrophysiology in rodent brain research

精神疾病引起复杂神经回路中的异常活动模式 我们大脑的一部分。然而，开发人员通常不知道这些异常模式的确切性质 新的治疗方法。该项目的目标是使面向电路的研究， 使用啮齿动物疾病模型的神经精神疾病。长期目标是促进 发现各种疾病的新治疗靶点并提供研究工具 动物间神经编码的差异将开发一种新型的研究工具， 商业化，专门用于高通量，详细和长期的神经 测量行为小鼠。第一阶段开发了数据记录系统 原型是足够轻的自由移动鼠标携带以及灵活 对脑组织的微创电极技术。在下一个阶段， 与UT Austin合作-将进一步开发小型化数据记录系统， 优化重量、尺寸、成本和性能。将在体内测试各种探头参数， 为多个大脑区域创建目标优化记录。最后，用户定制将是 通过基于Web的系统配置界面启用。通过实现高通量和 长期记录，该工具提供了一种实用的方法来研究电路的进展 使用大的动物疾病模型队列研究功能障碍。

Psychiatric disorders give rise to aberrant patterns of activity within the complex neural circuits of our brains. Yet, the exact nature of these abnormal patterns is often unknown to developers of new treatments. The goal of this project is to enable circuit-oriented research of neuropsychiatric diseases using rodent disease models. The long-term objective is to catalyze the discovery of new therapeutic targets for a variety of disorders and to provide a tool to study animal-to-animal variability in neural coding. A new type of research tool will be developed and commercialized that is specialized for high-throughput, detailed, and long-term neural measurements in behaving mice. Phase I enabled the development of a data logging system prototype that is lightweight enough for a freely-moving mouse to carry as well as flexible electrode technology that is minimally invasive to brain tissue. Throughout this next Phase-- in partnership with UT Austin--a miniaturized data logging system will be further developed to optimize weight, size, cost, and capabilities. Various probe parameters will be tested in vivo to create target-optimized recordings for multiple brain regions. Final, user-customization will be enabled through a web-based system configuration interface. By enabling high-throughput and long-term recordings, this tool provides a practical way to study the progression of circuit dysfunction using large cohorts of animal disease models.