Seung Lab: People: Artem Starovoytov

Artem Starovoytov

Research Specialist
(617) 452-2691
artems@mit.edu

Optical stimulation of neurons grown on silicon wafer

We have developed a new technique for selective extracellular stimulation of neurons in culture using targeted illumination pulses. We are currently utilizing this stimulation technique for studying collective properties of small neural networks in-vitro. Focused laser beam is used to selectively stimulate any location of a cultured 2D neural network in the microscope field of view. This offers an advantage over Multi-Electrode Array approach (MEA), where only a fixed set of stimulation locations is available. You may check the following page for figures, videos and some technical details or read a complete report here.

Contingent reinforcement of cultured neurons in vitro

We are looking for experimental confirmation of the Hedonistic Synapse hypothesis. The assumptions are that operant conditioning in living organisms has an underlying neuro-chemical mechanism and that this mechanisms could be implemented by means of each synapse optimizing its behavior to harvest the most of globally broadcasted reward. Check Sebastian's article for a full description of the model. Contrary to the previously reported experimental work on in-vitro reinforcement, we use cultured neurons and real-time control to improve the accuracy of event detection and chemical administration.

Software tools
Because we are so high-tech and computer-controlled here, quite a fraction of my time is spent on writing computer programs for the above projects. It would be gratifying if more people reused my tools. With this in mind some links are provided here. Let me know if you need more detailed description for some items.