High Resolution In-Vivo Electrode Localization Using Microfocal X-Rays

Neuroscientists lack the ability to perform in-vivo electrode localization with high accuracy, especially in deep brain structures. The design, implementation and testing of a microfocal x-ray stereo system that offers an efficient, accurate, and relatively low-cost solution this localization problem is presented. The results indicate the ability to localize a targets to within ~50 microns, in a brain-tissue-based frame. This accuracy is approximately twice as good as than the existing gold standard in electrophysiology (microlesions), and, unlike the microlesion method, the stereo microfocal x-ray method has important advantages. In particular, while only tens of neuronal recording sites can be reliably reconstructed with the microlesion method, microfocal x-ray method can be repeatedly performed to accurately estimate an essentially unlimited number of serial penetrations, and the localization results are available in nearly real time without animal sacrifice. Thesis Supervisor: James J. DiCarlo, MD PhD Title: Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, McGovern Institute for Brain Research Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology