RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 “Validating silicon polytrodes with paired juxtacellular recordings: method and dataset” JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 037937 DO 10.1101/037937 A1 Joana P. Neto A1 Gonçalo Lopes A1 João Frazão A1 Joana Nogueira A1 Pedro Lacerda A1 Pedro Baião A1 Arno Aarts A1 Alexandru Andrei A1 Silke Musa A1 Elvira Fortunato A1 Pedro Barquinha A1 Adam R. Kampff YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/02/02/037937.abstract AB Cross-validating new methods for recording neural activity is necessary to accurately interpret and compare the signals they measure. Here we describe a procedure for precisely aligning two probes for in vivo “paired-recordings” such that the spiking activity of a single neuron is monitored with both a dense extracellular silicon polytrode and a juxtacellular micro-pipette. Our new method allows for efficient, reliable, and automated guidance of both probes to the same neural structure with micron resolution. We also describe a new dataset of paired-recordings, which is available online. We propose that our novel targeting system, and ever expanding cross-validation dataset, will be vital to the development of new algorithms for automatically detecting/sorting single-units, characterizing new electrode materials/designs, and resolving nagging questions regarding the origin and nature of extracellular neural signals.