Implantable microelectrode arrays for simultaneous electrophysiological and neurochemical recordings

Implantable microfabricated microelectrode arrays represent a versatile and powerful tool to record electrophysiological activity across multiple spatial locations in the brain. Spikes and field potentials, however, correspond to only a fraction of the physiological information available at the neural interface. In urethane-anesthetized rats, microfabricated microelectrode arrays were implanted acutely for simultaneous recording of striatal local field potentials, spikes, and electrically evoked dopamine overflow on the same spatiotemporal scale. During these multi-modal recordings we observed (1) that the amperometric method used to detect dopamine did not significantly influence electrophysiological activity, (2) that electrical stimulation in the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) region resulted in electrochemically transduced dopamine transients in the striatum that were spatially heterogeneous within at least 200 μm, and (3) following MFB stimulation, dopamine levels and electrophysiological activity within the striatum exhibited similar temporal profiles. These neural probes are capable of incorporating customized microelectrode geometries and configurations, which may be useful for examining specific spatiotemporal relationships between electrical and chemical signaling in the brain.