High-resolution extracellular stimulation of dispersed hippocampal culture with high-density CMOS multielectrode array based on non-Faradaic electrodes

We introduce a method to electrically stimulate individual neurons at single-cell resolution in arbitrary spatiotemporal patterns with precise control over stimulation thresholds. By exploiting a custom microelectronic chip, up to 65 000 non-Faradaic electrodes can be uniquely addressed with electrode density exceeding 6500 electrodes mm ^-2. We demonstrate extracellular stimulation of dispersed primary hippocampal neuronal cultures using the chip at single-cell resolution. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.