Multi-neuron recording system

神经系统中的信息由神经细胞群中的动作电位序列携带。为了理解这些信息是如何处理的，我们需要同时记录神经元群体中几个成员产生的动作电位模式。直到最近，这在技术上是不可行的，但在过去几年中，制造记录设备（电极）的方法和基于计算机的分析电生理记录的方法的进步现在使这成为可能。 我正在申请资金购买必要的设备，以便我在昆虫模型系统的感觉处理研究中使用这些新方法，蟋蟀的听觉。我们对这个系统中的单个神经细胞有很多了解，我们已经用传统的一次一个神经元的技术研究了很多年，但是这些以前的研究已经清楚地表明，要进一步研究，我们必须了解神经细胞群如何对声音刺激做出反应，这需要我们同时记录几个神经细胞的电活动。所要求的设备将使我们能够收集数据，解决神经生物学中的一个基本问题：行为相关信息如何由神经细胞群表示。

Information in the nervous system is carried by sequences of action potentials in populations of nerve cells. To understand how this information is processed, we need to record simultaneously the patterns of action potentials generated by the several members of a neuronal population. Until recently, this was not technically feasible, but advances over the past few years in methods for fabricating recording devices (electrodes) and in computer-based methods for analyzing electrophysiological recordings now make this possible. I am applying for funds to purchase the equipment necessary for me to use these new methods in my studies of sensory processing in an insect model system, hearing in crickets. We know a great deal about individual nerve cells in this system, which we have studied for many years with traditional, one-neuron-at-a-time techniques, but these previous studies have made it clear that to proceed further we must learn how populations of nerve cells respond to sound stimuli, and this requires that we record the electrical activity of several nerve cells at once. The requested equipment will allow us to collect data that will address a fundamental issue in neurobiology: how behaviorally relevant information is represented by populations of nerve cells.