Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond

Daniele Linaro; João Couto; Michele Giugliano

doi:10.3791/52320

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Method Article

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond

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DOI:

10.3791/52320

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June 24th, 2015

Daniele Linaro¹ , João Couto¹ , Michele Giugliano¹

¹Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp

Summary

Closed-loop protocols are becoming increasingly widespread in modern day electrophysiology. We present a simple, versatile and inexpensive way to perform complex electrophysiological protocols in cortical pyramidal neurons in vitro, using a desktop computer and a digital acquisition board.

Abstract

Experimental neuroscience is witnessing an increased interest in the development and application of novel and often complex, closed-loop protocols, where the stimulus applied depends in real-time on the response of the system. Recent applications range from the implementation of virtual reality systems for studying motor responses both in mice¹ and in zebrafish², to control of seizures following cortical stroke using optogenetics³. A key advantage of closed-loop techniques resides in the capability of probing higher dimensional properties that are not directly accessible or that depend on multiple variables, such as neuronal excitability⁴ and reliability, while at the same time maximizing the experimental throughput. In this contribution and in the context of cellular electrophysiology, we describe how to apply a variety of closed-loop protocols to the study of the response properties of pyramidal cortical neurons, recorded intracellularly with the patch clamp technique in acute brain slices from the somatosensory cortex of juvenile rats. As no commercially available or open source software provides all the features required for efficiently performing the experiments described here, a new software toolbox called LCG⁵ was developed, whose modular structure maximizes reuse of computer code and facilitates the implementation of novel experimental paradigms. Stimulation waveforms are specified using a compact meta-description and full experimental protocols are described in text-based configuration files. Additionally, LCG has a command-line interface that is suited for repetition of trials and automation of experimental protocols.

Introduction

In recent years, cellular electrophysiology has evolved from the traditional open-loop paradigm employed in voltage and current clamp experiments to modern closed-loop protocols. The best known closed-loop technique is perhaps the dynamic clamp^6,7, which enabled the synthetic injection of artificial voltage-gated ion channels to determine the neuronal membrane voltage⁸, the in-depth study of the effects of non-deterministic flickering on ion channels on neuronal response dynamics⁹, as well as the recreation in vitro of realistic in vivo-like synaptic background activity¹⁰.

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