![]() While today the nVista system is widely used in preclinical animal models to inform the development and optimization of BCI for human use, it aims for a future in the clinic. “These measurements will also provide valuable information toward the design of future clinically-viable neurotechnologies, and should deliver exciting opportunities for algorithmic and signal processing advances.” “Optical-based miniscope measurements in NHPs have strong potential toward better understanding the local cellular effects of DBS and optimizing stimulation protocols to increase therapeutic impact,” said Jose Carmena, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley, Co-Director of the Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco and a senior author on the study. Despite significant advances in these device-based therapeutics for treating motor dysfunction (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, following spinal cord injury), further progress will likely be slowed due to limitations inherent to the industry’s current reliance on electrical-based measurements which sample or stimulate brain tissue relatively sparsely and are blind to the genetic identity and spatial micro-organization of the constituent neurons. ![]() “Longitudinal recordings from genetically-defined neuronal populations in behaving NHPs will accelerate progress toward understanding human brain function and behavior, as well as provide clinically-relevant insight into a broad range of neuropsychiatric and neurological conditions that lack effective treatment options today.”īeyond a better understanding of human brain disorders, the capabilities enabled by this study open the door to future applications in NHPs that will inform the development of more precise and sophisticated DBS and BCI approaches. “Non-human primates are highly similar to humans in terms of their brain structure and the complex behavior and higher cognitive functions they exhibit,” said Jonathan Nassi, Ph.D., Senior Director of Translational Science at Inscopix and a senior author on the study. Neural activity selective for different directions of arm movements was observed and could be used to decode the animal’s reach behavior on individual trials with over 85% accuracy. ![]() ![]() Researchers were able to repeatedly image activity from the same neurons during sessions spanning multiple months – allowing for longitudinal tracking of neural ensemble dynamics and their relationship to specific behaviors. In the demonstration, Inscopix’s head-mounted miniscope device was used to simultaneously record calcium dynamics, a proxy for neural activity, from over 100 genetically targeted neurons in the dorsal premotor cortex of macaques performing naturalistic motor behaviors. Establishing this powerful platform for use in non-human primates (NHPs) promises to advance the understanding of human brain function in health and disease and should significantly inform and accelerate the development of next-generation precision interventions for neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders- including therapeutics, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). PALO ALTO, Calif.-( BUSINESS WIRE)-Inscopix, Inc., a leading neurotechnology company in California that empowers breakthroughs in brain science, today announced the publication of the first demonstration of its miniature microscope (miniscope)-based wearable brain imaging device, nVista™, to perform real-time measurements of large-scale neural activity in behaving rhesus macaques.
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