Transparent microelectrodes improve brain activity mapping

There are a lot of different technologies with brain mapping functionality, but none have the resolution needed to track underlying cellular and molecular patterns in the brain.

Scientists want to combine the temporal resolution of electrophysiology recordings with the spatial resolution acquired with two-photon imaging of neuronal calcium fluctuations. But this requires fabrication of a special electrode that possesses good electrical function for electrophysiology, whilst allowing light to pass through for two-photon imaging.

A number of different materials have been trialled for use in transparent electrodes, but when scaled to measure single neuronal activity, the electrodes all had poor electrical performance. Signal-to-noise ratio suffers, because at the micrometre scale, complex resistance leads to high impedance and corresponding large noise.

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