Scientists from the University of Southampton have developed
a device which records the brain activity of worms to help test the effects of
drugs.
NeuroChip is a microfluidic electrophysiological device,
which can trap the microscopic worm Caenorhadbitis elegans and record the
activity of discrete neural circuits in its ‘brain’ – a worm equivalent of the
EEG.
C. elegans have been enormously important in providing
insight into fundamental signalling processes in the nervous system and this
device opens the way for a new analysis. Prior to this development,
electrophysiological recordings that resolve the activity of excitatory and
inhibitory nerve cells in the nervous system of the worm required a high level
of technical expertise – single microscopic (1mm long) worms have to be trapped
on the end of a glass tube, a microelectrode, in order to make the recording.
The worms are very mobile as well as being small and this can be a challenging
procedure.