Brain-wide neural recordings in mice navigating physical spaces enabled by robotic neural recording headstages.

Journal: Nature methods
PMID: 39375573

Abstract

Technologies that can record neural activity at cellular resolution at multiple spatial and temporal scales are typically much larger than the animals that are being recorded from and are thus limited to recording from head-fixed subjects. Here we have engineered robotic neural recording devices-'cranial exoskeletons'-that assist mice in maneuvering recording headstages that are orders of magnitude larger and heavier than the mice, while they navigate physical behavioral environments. We discovered optimal controller parameters that enable mice to locomote at physiologically realistic velocities while maintaining natural walking gaits. We show that mice learn to work with the robot to make turns and perform decision-making tasks. Robotic imaging and electrophysiology headstages were used to record recordings of Ca activity of thousands of neurons distributed across the dorsal cortex and spiking activity of hundreds of neurons across multiple brain regions and multiple days, respectively.

Authors

  • James Hope
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Travis M Beckerle
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Pin-Hao Cheng
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Zoey Viavattine
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Michael Feldkamp
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Skylar M L Fausner
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Kapil Saxena
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Eunsong Ko
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Ihor Hryb
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Russell E Carter
    Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Timothy J Ebner
    Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Suhasa B Kodandaramaiah
    Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States.

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