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BRAIN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Pipette-integrated microelectrodes

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 3, pages 682–683 (2019)Cite this article

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A suite of microelectrodes integrated into glass pipettes, for the simultaneous recording of intracellular and extracellular data in the brains of living mice and rats, yields ground-truth data for the validation of the performance of spike-sorting algorithms.

Electrodes based on glass pipettes have their origin in the pioneering work3 by Ida Henrietta Hyde, who developed the approach based on Marshall Barber’s glass-pipette manufacturing technique4. Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann subsequently used glass microelectrodes in their Nobel-prize-winning development of the patch-clamp-electrophysiology technique, which helped to revolutionize the fundamental understanding of communication in the nervous system5. The technique isolates a ‘patch’ of membrane containing a single ion channel within the pipette, detecting the miniscule currents resulting from the passage of ionic charge carriers through the captured channel. The patch-clamp technique enabled the understanding of the origins of signal generation in neurons as well as the molecular basis of disease6. Furthermore, micropipette-based intracellular recording techniques can be used to resolve whole-cell activity generated by the aggregate of ion movements across the entire cell membrane, yielding low-noise, ‘ground truth’ assessments of signal generation at the level of a single cell. However, measurements via patch clamp are relatively low-throughput, as the technique accesses single channels or individual cells at a time, and requires the dedicated effort of a skilled operator.

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Fig. 1: Pipette-integrated multimodal microelectrodes for brain electrophysiology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Takashi D. Y. Kozai

  2. Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Takashi D. Y. Kozai

  3. Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Takashi D. Y. Kozai

  4. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Takashi D. Y. Kozai

  5. NeuroTech Center, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Takashi D. Y. Kozai

  6. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Erin K. Purcell

  7. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Erin K. Purcell

  8. Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Erin K. Purcell

Authors
  1. Takashi D. Y. Kozai
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  2. Erin K. Purcell
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Correspondence to Takashi D. Y. Kozai or Erin K. Purcell.

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Kozai, T.D.Y., Purcell, E.K. Pipette-integrated microelectrodes. Nat Biomed Eng 3, 682–683 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0452-x

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