Researched
Large-scale neural recording
Watching thousands of neurons at once: two-photon imaging, calcium sensors and Neuropixels probes record brain activity cell by cell.
Open in the interactive tree →Two-photon microscopy (1990) lets lasers image living brain tissue deep below the surface. Genetically encoded calcium indicators such as GCaMP (2001) make active neurons light up, and Neuropixels silicon probes (2017) record the spikes of hundreds of neurons at once. These tools supply the data for memory research, brain models and brain-computer interfaces.
Prerequisites
- How nerve cells fire1952
- Integrated Circuit1958-1959Dense neural probes (e.g. Neuropixels) put recording circuits on the chip itself
- Laser1960
- Green fluorescent protein1994Calcium sensors such as GCaMP are built on green fluorescent protein