Section 2

Advanced Neuro-Sensing Technology

During the last years this field has experienced major breakthroughs along three lines: In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the spatial-resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of fMRI signals have been steadily improving such that it becomes currently possible to use BOLD signals from anatomically well-defined brain regions to drive bio-feedback applications in real-time. In multi-electrode recording it has become practice to record from several 100 of neurons simultaneously and to use the recorded neuronal population activity for controlling artificial devices. In optical imaging the development of stimulation depletion microscopy has extended the use of laser-scanning fluorescence microscopy from the single neuron and synapse level to the nanometer scale. These advanced data registration techniques are complemented by recently developed methods for data analysis of complex multi-variate data, which together with large scale modeling approaches lead to a quantitative understanding of the underlying coding principles. These methods make it possible to rationally assess the very large amount of data which arises from multi-electrode or optical recordings and imaging.

Projects involved:

2b - Nanoscale Imaging of Neuronal Signals Alexander Egner, Tobias Moser, and Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH

2c - Fast 3D Calcium imaging for single action potential detection and temporal registration Detlev Schild and Fred Wolf

2d - Neurofeedback using functional MRI Tibor Auer and Jens Frahm