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Abstract:
To date, the neuronal mechanisms of brain processes have been primarily studied by analyzing the activity of neurons recorded one at a time. Further understanding of brain mechanisms is likely to come from studies involving the simultaneous recording of large numbers of single neurons. This has recently become possible with the development of the technique of large-scale chronic tetrode recordings. This technique provides a powerful tool for studying networks of neurons since it allows (a) the reliable isolation of single neuron activity through triangulation of action potentials across the four channels of a tetrode, (b) significant yield, enabling the simultaneous monitoring of large numbers of neurons, and (c) long-term stability of individual neuron recordings over several days, a property critical for studying the neuronal basis of learning. This technique has been successfully used to record the simultaneous activity of on the order of 100 well-isolated neurons in freely behaving rodents (Wilson McNaughton, 1993). We have developed a recording chamber design that allows the chronic implantation of multi-tetrode arrays in awake behaving macaque monkeys. Using this design we have obtained high quality chronic recordings of single neurons from area V1 of a behaving macaque using a 12 tetrode array. These recordings allow the study of how visual information is processed in V1 at the level of networks of single neurons and the investigation of how the interactions across such networks change with learning.
