Robotic system shows promise for complex brain imaging technique

Robots have been developed to carry out a complex brain imaging technique that can offer insights into conditions such as Alzheimer's.

A team from Imperial College London has developed a robot and computer programme that can guide tiny measuring devices called micropipettes to specific neurons in the brains of live mammals to record electrical currents, without any need for human intervention.

In doing so, the machines are able to perform whole-cell recording (WCR), which is known as the gold-standard technique for studying the behaviour of neurons under different brain states such as stress or learning.

Because of the small scale of the equipment and cells involved, WCR has previously only been performed by a handful of specially trained researchers, meaning very few laboratories worldwide are able to offer the technique.

The creation of this robotic method could change that, meaning that labs with no expertise could use WCR to gather insights into the mammalian brain.

Researcher Dr Luca Annecchino said: "Ultimately, the problems in Alzheimer's result from changes in the information processing capability of networks of individual brain cells. This is exactly what we can monitor with the technique."

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