Seminars

Abstract:

Motor and sensory information are represented in the brain by coordinated ensembles of neurons with topographic maps that can span several centimeters in large animals and humans. Decoding information from these representations necessarily requires recording from large numbers of individual neurons with high temporal fidelity. As a result, there has been a recent impetus in both experimental and translational neuroscience to record from more neurons. 

In this talk we demonstrate the Argo System, a massively parallel neural recording system based on platinum-iridium microwire electrode arrays bonded to a CMOS voltage amplifier array. The Argo system is the highest channel count in vivo neural recording system built to date, supporting simultaneous recording from 65,536 channels, sampled at over 32 kHz and 12-bit resolution. This system is designed for cortical recordings, compatible with both penetrating and surface microelectrodes. We have validated this system by recording spiking activity from 791 neurons in rats and cortical surface Local Field Potential (LFP) activity from over 30,000 channels in sheep. While currently adapted for head-fixed recording, the microwire-CMOS architecture is well suited for clinical translation. Thus, this demonstration helps pave the way for a future high data rate intracortical implant.

Webinar link

Presenter Bios: 

Kunal Sahasrabuddhe is the Program Manager at Paradromics, Inc. He did his doctoral research with Prof. Nicholas Melosh at Stanford University, studying solar energy conversion through a novel phenomenon called Photon-Enhanced Thermionic Emission. When he joined Paradromics in 2016, Kunal worked on designing and fabricating recording electrode arrays. He went on to be the lead designer and project manager of the Argo recording system before assuming his current role as program manager.

Harbaljit “Harbi” Sohal is the Neuroscience Team Lead at Paradromics, Inc. His current and previous work has concentrated on acute and chronic interfacing with both central and peripheral nervous systems. He did his PhD with Stuart Baker and Andrew Jackson over at Newcastle University and his post-doc with Ed Boyden and Bob Desimone at MIT. He was a former faculty member at the Feinstein Institute before becoming the neuroscience lead at Paradromics.