In vivo multiple single-unit recording of neuronal activities with multisite microelectrode: improvement of spike sorting with a microelectrode positioning system for tracking a neuron

摘要

For long4erm in vivo multiple single-unit recording, we must suppress any electrode movement by heart beat, body movement, tissue dimpling. We proposed here a novel microelectrode positioning system for tracking neuronal spikes of a target neuron by countermoving the microelectrode manipulator against the uncontrollable movement of the microelectrode and/or brain tissue. The computer-controlled microelectrode holder was retracted (5,27 and 78μm) or inserted (13 and 54μm) by another manual micromanipulator at a speed of about 5μm/s. The result indicates that the spikes of a target neuron firing at about 10Hz were successfully tracked by the system with up to 54μm displacement of the manual micromanipulator Our system seems useful in long-term recording of single-neuron activity, particularly in situations where microelectrode-neuron distance is unstable.