Scientists have developed a revolutionary technique in the field of neurosensing that allows, for the first time, simultaneous and accurate monitoring of chemical and electrical signals in the living brain while animals move freely.
An innovative device that simultaneously monitors the brain's chemical and electrical signals.
In an unprecedented scientific collaboration between Professor Cai Xinxia’s team from the National Key Laboratory of Sensing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Yu Yanqin’s team from Zhejiang University, a multi-channel microelectrode array with integrated three-components was designed, solving two technical problems that have for decades limited the progress of brain research: the need to implant external electrodes that cause tissue damage and poor stability, and signal interference between different functions.
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The new innovation relies on a precise modulation strategy that enables each electrode to perform a specific function with high efficiency: a working electrode specifically modified to detect dopamine, an electrode to record neuronal electrical activity, and a reference electrode designed for long-term stability. This intelligent integration into a single probe minimizes tissue damage and improves the quality of recorded signals to an unprecedented degree.
In experiments on free-roaming mice, the new system provided profound insights into the relationship between dopamine and sleep. Scientists observed that dopamine levels peak during wakefulness, reach their lowest point during deep sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep), and then rise sharply again during the transition from REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) to wakefulness.
The data also revealed three distinct classes of neurons in the nucleus accumbens – a brain region vital for reward and motivation – that react synchronously to fluctuations in dopamine during sleep-wake cycles, providing direct evidence of how dopamine regulates these fundamental biological cycles.
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The new system features a flexible, modular design that can be modified in the future to monitor other neurotransmitters such as glutamate and serotonin, opening up broad prospects for a better understanding of neurological and psychiatric diseases, improving brain-computer interfaces, and developing more precise treatments for neurological disorders.
This technological achievement represents a qualitative leap in scientists' ability to monitor the brain of a living organism in its natural state, and bridges a long-standing gap between the study of chemical and electrical signals in the brain, which may lead to unprecedented discoveries in neuroscience and psychiatry in the coming years.
