This proposal will advance both engineering, through innovative use of nanofabrication techniques and device assembly schemes, and neuroscience, through newly enabled lines of research in which very small groups of cells (~1 to 10) can be optogenetically manipulated and electrically recorded. In the proof-of-concept study proposed here, the probes will be incorporated into the co-PI?s behavioral experiments on the neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning in the nucleus accumbens, an important brain area in the reward processing pathway. Optogenetically tagged neurons will be activated or silenced and recorded with the optoelectrodes during an associative reward learning task, allowing their activity to be perturbed at specific epochs of learning. These experiments will help both demonstrate the operation of the probes, and provide new insight into how information about appetitive stimuli is dynamically encoded in this brain area. The development of neural probes with unsurpassed photonic and electronic capabilities will have broad impact on how optogenetics and electrophysiology are incorporated into neuroscience experiments.
Broader impacts: The development of neural probes with unsurpassed photonic and electronic capabilities will have broad impact on how optogenetics and electrophysiology are incorporated into neuroscience experiments. If the development strategy proposed here is successful, the PIs will seek additional funding opportunities to mass-produce these tools at commercial device foundries. This collaborative project will provide a highly interdisciplinary environment for training of graduate students and a postdoctoral scholar. Additionally, the two PIs will use existing university programs to involve high school and undergraduate students in the research effort.The investigators also plan curriculum enhancement as a direc result of this work, and have a planned program of k-12 outreach there are numerous additional educational components, including collaboration between different institutions,a plan for device dissemination in the neuroscience community, K-12 education and outreach and inclusion of high school students in summer lab projects,undergraduate training and research opportunities, graduate training, curriculum development, and interdisciplinary exchange.
