Parietal stimulation reverses age-related decline in exploration, learning, and decision-making.

Aging can compromise decision-making and learning, potentially due to reduced exploratory behaviors crucial for novel problem-solving. We posit that invigorating exploration could mitigate these declines. Supporting this hypothesis, we found that older mice mirrored human aging, displaying less exploration and learning during decision-making, but optogenetic stimulation of their posterior parietal cortex boosted initial exploration, subsequently improving learning.

Frequency-Specific Optogenetic Deep Brain Stimulation of Subthalamic Nucleus Improves Parkinsonian Motor Behaviors.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is an effective therapy for the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the neural elements mediating symptom relief are unclear. A previous study concluded that direct optogenetic activation of STN neurons was neither necessary nor sufficient for relief of parkinsonian symptoms.

Electrodeposited platinum-iridium coating improves in vivo recording performance of chronically implanted microelectrode arrays.

Reliable single unit neuron recordings from chronically implanted microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are essential tools in the field of neural engineering. However, following implantation, MEAs undergo a foreign body response that functionally isolates them from the brain and reduces the useful longevity of the array. We tested a novel electrodeposited platinum-iridium coating (EPIC) on penetrating recording MEAs to determine if it improved recording performance.