July 12, 2019
Sebastien Delcasso from the Graybiel lab at MIT published a method for developing a brain implant called “HOPE” for combining with optogenetics, pharmacology, and electrophysiology:
HOPE (hybrid-drive combining optogenetics, pharmacology, and electrophysiology) is a method that simplifies the construction of a drivable and multi-task recording implant. HOPE is a new type of implant that can support up to 16 tetrodes, and allows for recordings of two different brain areas in a mouse at the same time, along with simultaneous optogenetic or pharmacological manipulation. The HOPE implants are open-source and can be recreated in CAD software and subsequently 3D printed, drastically lowering the cost of an electrophysiological implant. Additionally, instead of waiting months for a custom-made implant, these can be printed within a few hours.
The manuscript provides detailed instructions on constructing the implant, and allows for users to individually modify it for their own needs (and can be modified to be used in rats or non-human primates). Additionally, HOPE is meant to be used in experiments with paired electrophysiological experiments with either optogenetic or pharmacological manipulations, which will inevitably open the door to many more experiments. The implant is intended for microdrive recordings, and the actual implant is only made up of six 3D printed parts, an electrode interface board (EIB), and five screws.
The authors validate the implant by first successfully recording striatal neurons, using transgenic PV-Cre mice to optogenetically inhibit parvalbumin interneurons, and then using muscimol infused into the striatum in a head-fixed mouse preparation. HOPE is a novel open-source neural implant that can be paired with multiple methods (recordings, optogenetics, and pharmacology) to help in manipulating and subsequently recording brain activity.
More details of their implant can be found on their project site and on the project GitHub.