Probing the Functional Significance of Neural Oscillations through Closed-Loop Stimulation based on Real-Time Tracking of LFPs

项目摘要 根据当前任务需求在大脑中进行适当的信息路由是至关重要的， 成功应对复杂多变的环境。这样的路由机制似乎受到了损害 在精神分裂症等疾病中。不幸的是，我们目前还不知道大脑是如何能够 规范信息流。最近的一个理论表明，同步活动起着重要的作用。 然而，神经科学界仍然在激烈争论同步活动和精确 大脑皮层锋电位计时是否具有功能意义，以及它们在其中所起的作用。的主要障碍 回答这些问题是缺乏合适的人工操纵大脑的实验技术 活动与当前正在进行的神经活动具有精确的时间关系。技术允许 神经活动的实验操作在建立因果关系方面发挥了重要作用， 脑活动及其功能意义。 因此，拟议项目的目标是开发一种闭环刺激技术， 允许以局部场电位的形式测量当前正在进行的神经活动， 并且可以触发刺激装置，例如，电微刺激或光遗传学 以这样一种方式刺激，即人工注入的神经活动被锁相到当前正在进行的 振荡这包括开发一种算法，该算法可靠地跟踪 局部场电位的主导分量以及找到该算法的合适实现 用于真实的控制刺激器。向科学界提供拟议的技术 社区有望在理解功能意义方面提供重大突破， 同步活动和精确的尖峰时间。

Project Summary An appropriate routing of information in the brain based on the current task demands is essential for successfully dealing with a complex, changing environment. Such routing mechanisms seem to be impaired in disorders like schizophrenia. Unfortunately, we currently do not understand how the brain is able to regulate the flow of information. A recent theory suggests that synchronous activity plays an important role. However, it is still fiercely debated in the neuroscience community whether synchronous activity and precise spike timing in cortex have a functional significance and, if so, what role they play. A major obstacle to answering these questions is the lack of suitable experimental techniques for artificially manipulating brain activity with a precise timing relationship to currently ongoing neural activity. Techniques that allow the experimental manipulation of neural activity play an instrumental role in establishing a causal link between brain activity and its functional significance. The goal of the proposed project is therefore to develop a closed-loop stimulation technique that allows the measurement of currently ongoing neural activity in the form of a local field potential, analyzes it in real time, and can trigger a stimulation device like, for example, electrical microstimulation or optogenetic stimulation in such a way that artificially injected neural activity is phase-locked to currently ongoing oscillations. This includes the development of an algorithm that reliably tracks the instantaneous phase of a dominant component of the local field potential as well as finding a suitable implementation of this algorithm for controlling a stimulator in real time. Making the proposed technology available to the scientific community is expected to provide major breakthroughs in understanding the functional significance of synchronous activity and precise spike timing in the brain.