Neurophysiological equipment for network-level analyses in sensorimotor neuroscience

动物模型在我们对大脑功能的理解中发挥了核心作用。虽然在老鼠等较低级别的动物模型中进行研究，可以提供现成的手段，以细胞特有的精度操纵大脑回路，但需要在更高阶的动物模型中进行研究，以了解相互连接的大脑网络中的信息流，该网络的复杂性接近人类。为了更好地了解大脑中分布式网络中神经通信的动态，需要资金购买包括一些关键功能的新的神经生理刺激和记录系统。首先，高通道数(128个独立通道)允许记录整个大脑网络的多个节点的神经活动。其次，所要求的系统结合了一种新颖的“刺激-然后记录”模式，允许人们在刺激脉冲的毫秒内记录神经活动。第三，该系统能够无线记录肌肉活动，而不需要外部连接。当与实验室中其他可以测量行为(例如，眼球运动和触觉行为)的设备集成在一起时，该设备将允许对大脑中的神经通信进行新的洞察，使我们能够解决及时的问题，如视觉引导动作期间皮质和皮质下部位的协调，以及相互连接的大脑区域在刺激时如何反应。该团队由成熟的实验学家(Pi Corneil和合作者Pi Goodale)以及新兴的计算神经学家(合作者Mohsenzadeh和Muller)组成，因此团队准备与他们的HQP一起在感觉运动控制中的各种紧迫问题上进行合作。重要的是，所要求的设备将通过将其扩展到更高阶的动物模型，从而增强西方神经科学家进行网络水平分析的巨大势头，这些动物模型的大脑具有人类存在的许多复杂性，最终促进了我们对人脑功能的理解。

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.