Real-time feedback in MEAs: review paper
This is a review paper by Steve Potter, Daniel Wagenaar, and Thomas DeMarse on real-time closed-loop feedback control applied to neuronal cultures using MEAs. That is, you stimulate the cultures with a pattern that depends upon what you’re reading from them. This paper seems to be targeted at people who want to start doing these sorts of experiments; most of it is a very readable overview on how to setup a rig to do this, with pointers to other papers that cover the specifics. However, there are a couple of pages summarizing recent research using these techniques.
I’d recommend reading this paper if you want to setup a rig to do this; otherwise, I’d recommend reading pages 18 and 19.
S. M. Potter, D. A. Wagenaar, T. B. DeMarse. Closing the loop: Stimulation feedback systems for embodied MEA cultures. In: Advances in network electrophysiology using multi-electrode arrays, M. Taketani, M. Baudry, eds. Kluwer, New York. In press.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:26 am
Very interesting stuff. I haven’t read through most of the paper but I highly recommend the culture sections to those involved in neuron culture. The dicussion is very frank and readable (haven’t seen too many papers that have sections called “Why Neuron Cultures Die”… more of them should though!) Lots of good info on humidity and osmolarity issues, including an innovative technique for sealing the culture dishes with a Teflon-like polymer for long-term studies. Also, I never knew that the concentration of oxygen is so low in the brain (1-5%); Potter et al. claim that they get nice results when they incubate in more physiological O2 concentrations (instead of just staying with the atmospheric 20%). There are also some nice tips on building a microscope incubator (they recommend this company for insulating material: Reflectix Inc), something I have also struggled with, and on combining 2-photon imaging with long-term culture.