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

Abstract
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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.

Data availability

We have made all the materials related to this device available to the community via GitHub. The technical drawings, the methodological instructions, the photographs and supporting code will, together, allow any researcher to rapidly adopt this new technology and begin to benefit from Neuropixels probes. We are open to other sharing platforms as well (e.g. bio-protocol).We will make the data from the electrophysiological recordings available as well, via the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory repository which is linked form our lab website.

Article and author information

Author details

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.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4254-3009
George Bekheet

School of Medicine, University of Connecticutt, Farmington, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
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.

"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.

Copyright

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.