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High channel count electrophysiology and data processing for freely-moving animals

Award Number: R44MH114783
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/21/2017
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2025

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High channel count electrophysiology and data processing for freely-moving animals - PROJECT SUMMARY Simultaneous recording and stimulation of larger populations of neurons distributed throughout the brain is needed to rigorously evaluate theories of neural computation at the cellular level in mammals. Previously, we introduced a direct-to-disk data acquisition architecture (Kinney et al., 2015) designed to work with close-packed silicon probes (Scholvin et al., 2016) to enable 1000-channel neural recording in head-fixed animals (Preliminary Data). Through pilot studies we demonstrated the successful recording of terabytes of neural spiking activity (Preliminary Data), but also discovered some shortcomings of the architecture. Two design elements in particular were limiting. First, our headstages were too bulky for freely-moving experiments. Second, our acquisition hardware did not have the ability to quickly analyze all 1000 channels of data. As a result, it took days to weeks to understand the neural activity content of the terabyte-size recordings. For ultra-high-channel count neural recordings to become routine, the acquisition architecture must allow and facilitate rapid online and offline analysis of large amounts of data. A computer architecture with local data storage and analysis is favored, since a 1000-channel recording (e.g. 1000 channels sampled with 16 bits at 30 kHz) generates neural data at a sustained rate that exceed typical (gigabit ethernet) network connection speed to compute clusters or the cloud. Accordingly, we propose a 1024-channel silicon probe for freely-moving electrophysiology experiments in combination with a data acquisition system optimized for easy data analysis. The novel silicon probe will record and stimulate 1024 closed-packed sites, be compact enough for freely-moving rodent experiments, and reduce headstage cost by a factor of 5 (<$1 per channel). Furthermore, the redesigned acquisition hardware will not only capture 1024 channels of neural data and store to solid-state drive over a high-speed bus, but will now also copy the data to a GPU for spike sorting and RAM for visualization both online and offline. To test the system, we will perform 1024-channel freely-moving neural recordings in rodents, in collaboration with (at least) 3 labs with expertise (see Letters of Support).


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2023	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	6	1/23/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $788,791 )
2023	2023	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	6	7/25/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$788,791
2023	2022	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	5	3/28/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $788,791

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $1,205,009 )
2022	2022	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	002	5	8/9/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2022	2022	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	5	8/9/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,205,009
2022	2019	LEAFLABS, LLC	1280 CAMBRIDGE ST	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	4/1/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $1,205,009

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $1,005,444 )
2021	2021	LEAFLABS, LLC	288 NORFOLK ST STE 5	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	4	9/10/2021	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,005,444
2021	2019	LEAFLABS, LLC	288 NORFOLK ST STE 5	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	5/20/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $1,005,444

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $608,569 )
2019	2019	LEAFLABS, LLC	288 NORFOLK ST STE 5	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	8/8/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$608,569
														Subtotal = $608,569

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $684,421 )
2018	2018	LEAFLABS, LLC	288 NORFOLK ST STE 5	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	7/16/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$684,421
														Subtotal = $684,421

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $699,043 )
2017	2017	LEAFLABS, LLC	288 NORFOLK ST STE 5	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02139	MIDDLESEX	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	9/21/2017	NEW	$699,043
														Subtotal = $699,043

Grand Total All Awards = $4,991,277

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High channel count electrophysiology and data processing for freely-moving animals

Award Number: R44MH114783

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/21/2017

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2025

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