Jonathan P. Newman

Closed-Loop, Multichannel Experimentation Using the Open-Source NeuroRighter Electrophysiology Platform

Single neuron feedback control techniques, such as voltage clamp and dynamic clamp, have enabled numerous advances in our understanding of ion channels, electrochemical signaling, and neural dynamics. Although commercially available multichannel recording and stimulation systems are commonly used for studying neural processing at the network level, they provide little native support for real-time feedback. We developed the open-source NeuroRighter multichannel electrophysiology hardware and software platform for closed-loop multichannel control with a focus on accessibility and low cost. NeuroRighter allows 64 channels of stimulation and recording for around US

Upward synaptic scaling is dependent on neurotransmission rather than spiking

10,000, along with the ability to integrate with other software and hardware. Here, we present substantial enhancements to the NeuroRighter platform, including a redesigned desktop application, a new stimulation subsystem allowing arbitrary stimulation patterns, low-latency data servers for accessing data streams, and a new application programming interface (API) for creating closed-loop protocols that can be inserted into NeuroRighter as plugin programs. This greatly simplifies the design of sophisticated real-time experiments without sacrificing the power and speed of a compiled programming language. Here we present a detailed description of NeuroRighter as a stand-alone application, its plugin API, and an extensive set of case studies that highlight the system’s abilities for conducting closed-loop, multichannel interfacing experiments.

Real-time in vivo optogenetic neuromodulation and multielectrode electrophysiologic recording with NeuroRighter.

Homeostatic plasticity encompasses a set of mechanisms that are thought to stabilize firing rates in neural circuits. The most widely studied form of homeostatic plasticity is upward synaptic scaling (upscaling), characterized by a multiplicative increase in the strength of excitatory synaptic inputs to a neuron as a compensatory response to chronic reductions in firing rate. While reduced spiking is thought to trigger upscaling, an alternative possibility is that reduced glutamatergic transmission generates this plasticity directly. However, spiking and neurotransmission are tightly coupled, so it has been difficult to determine their independent roles in the scaling process. Here we combined chronic multielectrode recording, closed-loop optogenetic stimulation, and pharmacology to show that reduced glutamatergic transmission directly triggers cell-wide synaptic upscaling. This work highlights the importance of synaptic activity in initiating signalling cascades that mediate upscaling. Moreover, our findings challenge the prevailing view that upscaling functions to homeostatically stabilize firing rates.

Optogenetic feedback control of neural activity

Optogenetic channels have greatly expanded neuroscience’s experimental capabilities, enabling precise genetic targeting and manipulation of neuron subpopulations in awake and behaving animals. However, many barriers to entry remain for this technology – including low-cost and effective hardware for combined optical stimulation and electrophysiologic recording. To address this, we adapted the open-source NeuroRighter multichannel electrophysiology platform for use in awake and behaving rodents in both open and closed-loop stimulation experiments. Here, we present these cost-effective adaptations, including commercially available LED light sources; custom-made optical ferrules; 3D printed ferrule hardware and software to calibrate and standardize output intensity; and modifications to commercially available electrode arrays enabling stimulation proximally and distally to the recording target. We then demonstrate the capabilities and versatility of these adaptations in several open and closed-loop experiments, demonstrate spectrographic methods of analyzing the results, as well as discuss artifacts of stimulation.

Delivery of continuously-varying stimuli using channelrhodopsin-2.

Optogenetic techniques enable precise excitation and inhibition of firing in specified neuronal populations and artifact-free recording of firing activity. Several studies have suggested that optical stimulation provides the precision and dynamic range requisite for closed-loop neuronal control, but no approach yet permits feedback control of neuronal firing. Here we present the ‘optoclamp’, a feedback control technology that provides continuous, real-time adjustments of bidirectional optical stimulation in order to lock spiking activity at specified targets over timescales ranging from seconds to days. We demonstrate how this system can be used to decouple neuronal firing levels from ongoing changes in network excitability due to multi-hour periods of glutamatergic or GABAergic neurotransmission blockade in vitro as well as impinging vibrissal sensory drive in vivo. This technology enables continuous, precise optical control of firing in neuronal populations in order to disentangle causally related variables of circuit activation in a physiologically and ethologically relevant manner. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07192.001

Mechanism, dynamics, and biological existence of multistability in a large class of bursting neurons.

To study sensory processing, stimuli are delivered to the sensory organs of animals and evoked neural activity is recorded downstream. However, noise and uncontrolled modulatory input can interfere with repeatable delivery of sensory stimuli to higher brain regions. Here we show how channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) can be used to deliver continuous, subthreshold, time-varying currents to neurons at any point along the sensory-motor pathway. To do this, we first deduce the frequency response function of ChR2 using a Markov model of channel kinetics. We then confirm ChR2s frequency response characteristics using continuously-varying optical stimulation of neurons that express one of three ChR2 variants. We find that wild-type ChR2 and the E123T/H134R mutant (“ChETA”) can pass continuously-varying subthreshold stimuli with frequencies up to ~70 Hz. Additionally, we find that wild-type ChR2 exhibits a strong resonance at ~6–10 Hz. Together, these results indicate that ChR2-derived optogenetic tools are useful for delivering highly repeatable artificial stimuli that mimic in vivo synaptic bombardment.

Stimulus-evoked high frequency oscillations are present in neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays

Multistability, the coexistence of multiple attractors in a dynamical system, is explored in bursting nerve cells. A modeling study is performed to show that a large class of bursting systems, as defined by a shared topology when represented as dynamical systems, is inherently suited to support multistability. We derive the bifurcation structure and parametric trends leading to multistability in these systems. Evidence for the existence of multirhythmic behavior in neurons of the aquatic mollusc Aplysia californica that is consistent with our proposed mechanism is presented. Although these experimental results are preliminary, they indicate that single neurons may be capable of dynamically storing information for longer time scales than typically attributed to nonsynaptic mechanisms.

Amplitude modulated photostimulation for probing neuronal network dynamics

Pathological high frequency oscillations (250–600 Hz) are present in the brains of epileptic animals and humans. The etiology of these oscillations and how they contribute to the diseased state remains unclear. This work identifies the presence of microstimulation-evoked high frequency oscillations (250–400 Hz) in dissociated neuronal networks cultured on microelectrode arrays (MEAs). Oscillations are more apparent with higher stimulus voltages. As with in vivo studies, activity is isolated to a single electrode, however, the MEA provides improved spatial resolution with no spread of the oscillation to adjacent electrodes 200 μm away. Oscillations develop across four weeks in vitro. Oscillations still occur in the presence of tetrodotoxin and synaptic blockers, and they cause no apparent disruption in the ability of oscillation-presenting electrodes to elicit directly evoked action potentials (dAPs) or promote the spread of synaptic activity throughout the culture. Chelating calcium with ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid (EGTA) causes a temporal prolongation of the oscillation. Finally, carbenoxolone significantly reduces or eliminates the high frequency oscillations. Gap junctions may play a significant role in maintaining the oscillation given the inhibitory effect of carbenoxolone, the propagating effect of reduced calcium conditions and the isolated nature of the activity as demonstrated in previous studies. This is the first demonstration of stimulus-evoked high frequency oscillations in dissociated cultures. Unlike current models that rely on complex in vivo recording conditions, this work presents a simple controllable model in neuronal cultures on MEAs to further investigate how the oscillations occur at the molecular level and how they may contribute to the pathophysiology of disease.

Neural ensemble communities: open-source approaches to hardware for large-scale electrophysiology

Sensory input arrives in the cortex in the form of dynamic synaptic currents to populations of neurons. How cortical neurons encode and transmit these inputs ultimately determines the cognitive and behavioral response of the animal. Therefore, a number of theoretical studies have attempted to explain the cortical population response in model neuronal networks [1]. Yet, there are few experimental platforms for studying the dynamical rate responses in large living networks that match the manipulability of computational models. As a result, most experimental studies examining cortical input response properties are confined to independent or single neurons, e.g. [2]. Optogenetic techniques in dissociated cultured networks (DCNs) that are grown on multielectrode arrays (MEAs) offer an opportunity to test key aspects of network response dynamics. However, controlling the spontaneous activity of DCNs and imposing a specific irregular activity pattern is challenging [3]. Here, we report that continuous fluctuating light stimulation has several major effects on DNCs that express Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2): (1) it inhibits network-wide bursting and leads to a unimodal interspike interval distribution of single units (figure ​(figure1)1) that resembles those observed in vivo [4]; (2) the single unit response to light fluctuations is temporally reliable and stable for prolonged periods of time; (3) the correlation between light and population firing can be > 0.6 for light fluctuations that have a 50 msec time constant; and (4) using a generalized linear framework we show that the linear response kernel can be used to predict the firing activity of neurons that are driven by light stimuli. Figure 1 Figure 1. (above) DCN expression patterns of neuron-specific neuronal nuclear protien (NeuN), pyramidal specific CaMKIIa, and the ChR2 tag mCherry. The dots labeled ‘e’ are electrodes embedded in the MEA. (right) Inter-spike interval distribution ... These results indicate that amplitude modulated optogenetic stimulation with LEDs is an efficient tool for providing correlated input currents to thousands of pyramidal cells embedded in DCNs while recording spiking activity in hundreds of individual neurons using an MEA. Because DCNs can be created with specified proportions of different cell types and allow easy pharmacological access, this technique opens a new level of control over living neuronal populations for testing theories of cortical response properties and small signal representation under different network parameter regimes.