Electrophysiology has been widely used to record neuronal activity in the brain. Patch–clamp recordings can provide insight into the properties of individual neurons, while extracellular recordings assess the activity of several neurons. However, both technologies are limited in their throughput, and the advent of optical recording technologies has threatened to send this technology to the back burner.

Patch–clamp recordings are difficult to perform, but automation could facilitate such approaches. In particular, image-guided patch–clamp robots could increase the throughput for recordings from targeted neurons (Neuron 95, 1037–1047, 2017; Neuron 95, 1048–1055, 2017), although these robots' potential is yet to be explored.

A renaissance of electrophysiology. Reproduced in part from Jun, J.J. et al., Nature 8, 232–236, 2017. Credit: Kim Caesar/Springer Nature

The Neuropixels probe (Nature 551, 232–236, 2017) combines the advantages of both optical and electrical recording technologies, namely the high temporal resolution of the classical microelectrode probes with the high neuronal coverage of optical recordings. With its 960 recording sites, 384 of which can be used simultaneously, the Neuropixels probe exceeds the capabilities of previous state-of the-art technology by an order of magnitude and enables high-quality recordings from hundreds of units in the rodent brain while maintaining a small footprint. The probes are scheduled to become available to the research community at large in mid-2018.

Currently, the Neuropixels probe is optimized for electrophysiological recordings in rodents, but further development will hopefully extend its capabilities to other systems, increase the number of recorded units via multishank probes, and add optical stimulation capabilities for optogenetic experiments.

The Neuropixels probe may transform neuroscience research, as it can gather data at the resolution of single units across multiple brain areas in behaving animals. It will facilitate studies that are designed to understand how neurons that are distributed in different areas in the brain work together. Furthermore, its compact and lightweight design enables long-term recordings in freely moving animals.

Once the Neuropixels and robotic patch-clamping technologies become accessible to the community, it will be exciting to see how they will inspire scientists to ask questions that could not be addressed previously. Will they reverse the trend from assessing neuronal activity by optical means, and trigger an electrophysiology renaissance?