UC San Diego

Many cognitive processes require communication between the neocortex and the hippocampus. However, coordination between large-scale cortical dynamics and hippocampal activity is not well understood, partially due to the difficulty in simultaneously recording from those regions. In the present study, we developed a flexible, insertable and transparent microelectrode array (Neuro-FITM) that enables investigation of cortical-hippocampal coordinations during hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SWRs). Flexibility and transparency of Neuro-FITM allow simultaneous recordings of local field potentials and neural spiking from the hippocampus during wide-field calcium imaging. These experiments revealed that diverse cortical activity patterns accompanied SWRs and, in most cases, cortical activation preceded hippocampal SWRs. We demonstrated that, during SWRs, different hippocampal neural population activity was associated with distinct cortical activity patterns. These results suggest that hippocampus and large-scale cortical activity interact in a selective and diverse manner during SWRs underlying various cognitive functions. Our technology can be broadly applied to comprehensive investigations of interactions between the cortex and other subcortical structures.