Dual electrode neurophysiology rig

电生理学是一种通过测量活细胞和组织的电学特性来研究其生理学的技术，如电压变化和电流流动。这在神经科学中特别重要，在神经科学中，动作电位可以直接从活体神经元中记录下来。锐利玻璃电极是通过使用激光拉动器加热玻璃毛细血管产生的，激光拉动器提供拉开玻璃的力，产生具有高电阻的小尖端。在细胞内神经元记录期间，尖锐的玻璃电极被直接插入神经元，以记录穿过细胞膜的活动。细胞外记录将电极的尖端放置在神经元表面附近，取而代之的是记录细胞附近的离子电位变化。这两种技术都需要使用低噪声放大器、过滤器和数据采集设备来解释来自制备过程中随机活动和噪声的结果。通过使用双电极记录，可以同时从昆虫大脑内的两个区域进行记录。双电极记录的好处是，可以从多个神经元实时记录相互作用的神经元过程，如动作电位放电中的抑制或协同作用。在记录后，神经元被染色以确定整个大脑的连接和目标。我将使用这种组合技术来研究昆虫的嗅觉，一个简单的高级嗅觉处理模型。特别是将确定大脑内化学混合物的感觉编码机制。通过这项研究提供的见解将有益于整个加拿大和世界的医学、农业、基础神经科学和人工智能研究。

Electrophysiology is a technique used to study physiology of living cells and tissues by measuring their electrical properties, such as voltage change and current flow.  This is of particular importance in neuroscience, wherein action potentials may be recorded directly from neurons in-vivo.  Sharp glass electrodes are produced by heating glass capillaries using a laser puller, which provides force to pull glass apart and produce small tips with high resistance.  During intracellular neuronal recording, a sharp glass electrode is inserted directly into a neuron to record activity across the cell membrane.  Extracellular recording places the tip of the electrode near the neuronal surface, instead recording ion potential changes in the cell vicinity.  Both techniques require the use of low-noise amplifiers, filters and data acquisition devices to interpret results from random activity and noise within a preparation.  By using dual-electrode recording, it is possible to record from two areas simultaneously within insect brains.  The benefit of dual-electrode recording is that interactive neuronal processes such as inhibition or synergy in action potential firing may be documented from multiple neurons in real time.  After recording, neurons are stained to determine connections and targets throughout the brain.  I will use this combination of techniques to investigate insect olfaction, a simple model for higher olfactory processing.  In particular, mechanisms of sensory coding of chemical mixtures within the brain will be determined.  Insights provided through this study will be beneficial to medical, agricultural, basic neuroscience and artificial intelligence research throughout Canada and the world.