Development of measuring neural activity in a freely behaving animal

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14315
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Dai 京都大学, 医学研究科, 教授 (90303817)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Hamaguchi Kosuke 京都大学, 医学研究科, 講師 (50415270)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 電気生理学 / 細胞内記録 / 光学的計測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To measure electrical activity of the brain while a model animal is conducting cognitive-behavioral tasks is one of the most fundamental techniques for studying the brain function. To further understand how the neurons integrate synaptic inputs and generate action potentials, it is important to measure not only action potentials but also sub-threshold small potentials such as postsynaptic potentials. However, it is very difficult to measure sub-threshold potentials in a freely behaving animal, because the conventional electrophysiological devices for measuring sub-threshold potentials is very large and not suitable to the neural recording of behaving animals. In this study, we developed a small and light-weight electro-phsiological device which enables us to conduct intracellular recording to detect sub-threshold postsynaptic potentials.

Free Research Field

神経科学