26. REAL-TIME IMAGE AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL RECORDING AND PROCESSING

Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisor(s): Gabriel Silva

Primary Student
Name: Helen G Saad
Email: hsaad@ucsd.edu
Phone: 858-822-2834
Grad Year: 2012

Student Collaborators
Krystal Chiao, Kchiao@ucsd.edu | Christopher MacDonald, clmacdon@ucsd.edu

Abstract
Understanding the firing patterns of neural circuits helps to unravel the mysteries that underlie the temporal and spatial connectivity of such circuits. Firing patterns can be accurately studied and analyzed by processing real-time data acquired through imaging and electrophysiological recording of calcium currents in single nerve cells and in networks of these cells. IERP (Imaging and Electrophysiological Recording and Processing) is a software tool that is fully optimized to perform the above features. The design of IERP considered a number of fundamental issues and challenges, including the ability to view, record, and analyze imaging and electrophysiological data in real-time and with high accuracy and perfect synchrony. Moreover image recording can be triggered by external events and the application of stimuli is synchronized with image scanning, thus helping the realization of sophisticated experimental setups and allowing on-the-fly adjustment of external parameters. Suited for both in-vitro and in-vivo experiments, IERP provides the user with a hand-drawing tool that serves as a tracking mechanism. Individual cells as well as networks of cells can thus be marked on the image displayed in order to keep a trace of the cells that will be analyzed at a later stage. We describe the application of this system to the simultaneous imaging of calcium transients in cultured hippocampal neurons in order to derive membrane voltage changes.

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