Recording extracellular neural activity in the behaving monkey using a semi-chronic and high-density electrode system

We describe a technique to semi-chronically record the cortical extracellular neural activity in the behaving monkey employing commercial high-density electrodes. After the design and construction of low cost microdrives that allows varying the depth of the recording locations after the implantation surgery, we recorded the extracellular unit activity from pools of neurons at different depths in the presupplementary motor cortex (pre-SMA) of a Rhesus monkey trained in a synchronization-tapping task. The collected data was processed to classify cells as putative pyramidal cells or interneurons and to identify monosynaptic connections between cell pairs. Analysis of the population activity revealed a highly repetitive ensemble dynamics over distinct trials of the synchronization task. These results show that the semi-chronic technique is a viable option for the large-scale parallel recording of local circuit activity at different depths in the cortex of the macaque monkey and other large species.

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