Neurophysiological equipment for network-level analyses in sensorimotor neuroscience

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Animal models have played a central role in our understanding of brain function. While work in lower animal models, such as mice, offers ready means to manipulate brain circuits with cell-specific precision, work in higher-order animal models is needed to understand information flow within an interconnected brain network whose complexity approaches that seen in humans. To better understand the dynamics of neural communication throughout a distributed network in the brain, funds are requested for the purchase of a new neurophysiological stimulation and recording system that includes a number of key capabilities. First, the high-channel count (128 independent channels) permits the recording of neural activity throughout multiple nodes of a brain network. Second, the requested system incorporates a novel “stim-then-record” mode that allows one to record neural activity within milliseconds of a stimulation pulse. Third, the system enables wireless recording of muscle activity without the need for externalized connections. When integrated with other equipment in the lab that can measure behaviour (e.g., eye movements and reaching behaviours), this equipment will permit new insights into neural communication in the brain, allowing us to address timely questions such as the coordination of cortical and subcortical sites during visually-guided actions, and how interconnected brain areas respond during stimulation. The team consists of established experimentalists (PI Corneil and co-PI Goodale) as well as emerging computational neuroscientists (collaborators Mohsenzadeh and Muller), hence the team is poised along with their HQP to collaborate on a variety of pressing questions in sensorimotor control. Importantly, the requested equipment will potentiate the significant momentum for network-level analyses by Western Neuroscientists by extending it into higher-order animal models whose brains are characterized by many of the complexities present in humans, ultimately advancing our understanding human brain function.