1. Neuroscience
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Chronically-implanted Neuropixels probes enable high yield recordings in freely moving mice

  1. Ashley L Juavinett
  2. George Bekheet
  3. Anne K Churchland  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of California, San Diego, United States
  2. University of Connecticutt, United States
  3. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States
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Cite this article as: eLife 2019;8:e47188 doi: 10.7554/eLife.47188

Abstract

The advent of high-yield electrophysiology using Neuropixels probes is now enabling researchers to simultaneously record hundreds of neurons with remarkably high signal to noise. However, these probes have not been well-suited to use in freely moving mice. It is critical to study neural activity in unrestricted animals for many reasons, such as leveraging ethological approaches to study neural circuits. We designed and implemented a novel device that allows Neuropixels probes to be customized for chronically-implanted experiments in freely moving mice. We demonstrate the ease and utility of this approach in recording hundreds of neurons during an ethological behavior across weeks of experiments. We provide the technical drawings and procedures for other researchers to do the same. Importantly, our approach enables researchers to explant and reuse these valuable probes, a transformative step which has not been established for recordings with any type of chronically-implanted probe.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Ashley L Juavinett

    Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4254-3009

  2. George Bekheet

    School of Medicine, University of Connecticutt, Farmington, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Anne K Churchland

    Department of Neuroscience, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
    For correspondence
    churchland@cshl.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3205-3794

Funding

Simons Foundation (Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain)

  • Anne K Churchland

Pew Foundation (Pew Scholars)

  • Anne K Churchland

Eleanor Schwartz Fund (Scholar award)

  • Anne K Churchland

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Marie Robertson)

  • Anne K Churchland

National Science Foundation (1559816)

  • George Bekheet

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All surgical and behavioral procedures conformed to the guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (protocol # 16-13-10-7). All surgery was performed under isoflurane anesthesia and every effort was made to minimize suffering.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Laura L Colgin, University of Texas at Austin, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: March 27, 2019
  2. Accepted: August 5, 2019
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: August 14, 2019 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: August 23, 2019 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2019, Juavinett et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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