NeuroDisco: Interfacing neuronal populations - cell by cell, millisecond by millisecond, day by day
Neuronal cultures offer comprehensive access to living networks, but their value as functional models is limited by synchronized bursts that drive pathologically strong neuronal depolarization. Theory attributes such bursting to a lack of external input. Here we present NeuroDiscos, compact {micro}LED and OLED projectors that operate inside standard incubators and deliver patterned, long-term optogenetic stimulation, synchronized with submillisecond precision to multi-electrode array recordings. Weak, uncorrelated NeuroDisco stimulation dispersed the bursts but left the population firing rate largely unchanged. In this asynchronous regime, neuronal activity reproducibly follows the weak stimulation, and stimulus-response relations characterize receptive fields and putative functional connections. At hardware costs of {euro}500-1,000, NeuroDiscos offer a scalable route to functional characterization of primary and patient-derived cultures.