NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

Szymanska Agnieszka A, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Agnieszka Szymanska of the Center for Biomedical Signal Processing and Computation, University of California, Irvine to conduct a research project in Engineering during the summer of 2013 at the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan. The project title is "An Algorithm for Neuron Characterization In Vivo." The host scientist is Dr. Yuji Ikegaya, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. While many techniques exist to study the functional organization of neurons, few can use extracellular action potentials (EAPs) to extract crucial neuron parameters such as the location, size, dendritic tree shape, and type of neurons being studied. This study develops a novel framework to monitor neural activity via both extracellular recording and functional multi-neuron calcium imaging (fMCI). Extracellular recording uses micro-sensors placed in neural tissue to detect action potentials from nearby neurons, whereas calcium imaging detects the flow of calcium ions into a cell, causing the cell to effectively light up during an action potential. Extracellular recordings from rat brain slices are analyzed using a new statistical signal processing algorithm to extract the location, size, and type of multiple neurons, while fMCI data provides confirmation of the results. Because extracellular recording is one of the only ways to study neural activity in live animals (in vivo) where direct imaging cannot be performed, the algorithm being tested here can ultimately improve studies of neuronal migration, plasticity, and brain computer interfacing. These kinds of studies can then lead to a better understanding of brain development, healing, and diseases such as dementia. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, once tested, the analysis algorithm developed in this study will be freely disseminated as a software package to the neuroscience community at large. This will vastly improve in vivo studies of neural functionality, and therefore have long lasting impact on the scientific community. Neuron activity movies made during the study will also be presented in an outreach program to teach local elementary and high school students about neural network dynamics in an engaging way.