Reproducibility of in-vivo electrophysiological measurements in mice

Abstract

Understanding whole-brain-scale electrophysiological recordings relies on the collective work of many labs. Because two labs recording from the same region can reach different conclusions, it is critical to quantify and control features that hinder reproducibility. To address this, we formed a multi-lab collaboration using a shared, open-source behavioral task and experimental apparatus. Experimenters in ten laboratories repeatedly targeted Neuropixels probes to the same location (spanning secondary visual areas, hippocampus, and thalamus) in mice making decisions. After applying quality-control criteria, we found that neuronal yield, firing rates, spike amplitudes, and task-modulated neuronal activity were largely reproducible across laboratories. To quantify variance in neural activity explained by task variables, we developed a multi-task neural network model, and found that within- and between-lab random effects captured by this model were comparable. Our results demonstrate that across-lab standardization can produce reproducible results from large-scale Neuropixels recordings. Our dataset, code, and protocols are openly accessible.