Long-term near-continuous recording with Neuropixels probes in healthy and epileptic rats

Abstract

Neuropixels probes have become a crucial tool for high-density electrophysiological recordings. Although most research involving these electrodes is in acute preparations, some scientific inquiries require long-term recordings in freely moving animals. Recent reports have presented prosthesis designs for chronic recordings, but some of them do not allow for probe recovery, which is desirable given their cost. Others appear to be fragile, as these articles describe numerous broken implants. This fragility presents a challenge for recordings in rats, particularly in epilepsy models where strong mechanical stress impinges upon the prosthesis. To overcome these limitations, we present a new prosthesis specifically designed to protect the probes from strong shocks and enable the safe retrieval of electrodes after experiments. This implant was successfully used to record from healthy and epileptic rats for up to three weeks almost continuously, with a probe retrieval and reuse success rate of 91%, improving previously described recycling performances.