Stimulus Driven Single Unit Activity From Micro-Electrocorticography

Abstract

High-fidelity measurements of neural activity can enable advancements in our understanding of the neural basis of complex behaviors such as speech, audition, and language, and are critical for developing neural prostheses that address impairments to these abilities due to disease or injury. We develop a novel high resolution, thin-film micro-electrocorticography (micro-ECoG) array that enables highfidelity surface measurements of neural activity from songbirds, a well-established animal model for studying speech behavior. With this device, we provide the first demonstration of sensory-evoked modulation of surface-recorded single unit responses. We establish that single unit activity is consistently sensed from micro-ECoG electrodes over the surface of sensorimotor nucleus HVC (used as a proper name) in anesthetized European starlings, and validate responses with correlated firing in single units recorded simultaneously at surface and depth. The results establish a platform for high-fidelity recording from the surface of subcortical structures that will accelerate neurophysiological studies, and development of novel electrode arrays and neural prostheses.

Microscale physiological events on the human cortical surface

“…1D; Supplementary Video 1). (Wilks et al 2011;Sessolo et al 2013;Khodagholy et al 2015Khodagholy et al , 2016Khodagholy et al , 2017Cellot et al 2016;Kaiju et al 2017;Hermiz et al 2020). Some of these events (which we call Type 1 events) were similar in kinetics to single units (i.e., individual spikes) recorded with extracellular electrodes including prior surface PEDOT:PSS electrode recordings ((Khodagholy et al 2015((Khodagholy et al , 2016((Khodagholy et al , 2017 Fig.…”

“…We detected a series of different 'fast' waveforms in recordings with PEDOT:PSS electrodes filtered between 250 and 6000 Hz. Previous studies with these devices have demonstrated recordings of single action potentials from the pial surface of various preparations, including in humans (Wilks et al 2011;Sessolo et al 2013;Khodagholy et al 2015Khodagholy et al , 2016Khodagholy et al , 2017 28 Cellot et al 2016;Kaiju et al 2017;Hermiz et al 2020). Some of these events (which we call Type 1 events) were similar in kinetics to single units (i.e., individual spikes) recorded with extracellular electrodes including prior surface PEDOT:PSS electrode recordings ((Khodagholy et al 2015((Khodagholy et al , 2016((Khodagholy et al , 2017) Fig.…”

“…We took advantage of the development of high density poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) microelectrodes to detect microscale neural activity from large areas of the cortical surface in humans, rodents, and non-human primates (Wilks et al 2011;Sessolo et al 2013;Khodagholy et al 2015Khodagholy et al , 2016Khodagholy et al , 2017Cellot et al 2016;Hermiz et al 2020). PEDOT:PSS microelectrodes represent a next stage in technologies developed for recording microscale neuronal activity in humans which also include laminar arrays of microelectrodes Ulbert et al 2004;Wang et al 2005;Fabó et al 2008;Cash et al 2009;Keller et al 2010;Halgren et al 2018Halgren et al , 2019 and 2D arrays of penetrating microelectrodes (the Utah array, (Nordhausen et al 1994;Hochberg et al 2006;Schevon et al 2008Schevon et al , 2010Truccolo et al 2008;Waziri et al 2009;Keller et al 2010).…”

Neurally driven synthesis of learned, complex vocalizations

“…Doing so with recordings from the superficially located nucleus HVC enables accessibility by less invasive micro-electrode arrays, capable of resolving not only LFP, which has been shown suitable for BMI, 41 but also SUA and MUA. 1,3,[40][41][42]58,59 This provides a novel tool for probing the neural circuits underlying the production, acquisition, and maintenance of vocal communication signals and unlocks access to new models and experiments directed at understanding how neuronal activity is transformed into natural action and how peripheral effectors shape the neural basis of action. 22,54 Our approach also provides a proving ground for vocal prosthetic strategies.…”

Conductive Polymers for Bidirectional Neural Interfaces: Fundamentals Aspects and in Vivo Applications

“…1b) arrays, placed on the surface of the CNS, or intracortical probes (Fig. 1c-e) should be adopted [12][13][14][15] . Indeed, extracellular electrodes are the most viable interfaces to record LFPs at high spatialtemporal resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio [16] , action potentials (spikes) from a population of nearest neurons ("multi-unit" recording), and in some instances also from single neurons (single-unit activity) [11,17,18] .…”