PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kateryna Voituik
AU  - Jinghui Geng
AU  - Matthew G. Keefe
AU  - David F. Parks
AU  - Sebastian E. Sanso
AU  - Nico Hawthorne
AU  - Daniel B. Freeman
AU  - Tomasz J. Nowakowski
AU  - Sofie R. Salama
AU  - Mircea Teodorescu
AU  - David Haussler
TI  - Light-weight Electrophysiology Hardware and Software Platform for Cloud-Based Neural Recording Experiments
AID  - 10.1101/2021.05.18.444685
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.05.18.444685
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/20/2021.05.18.444685.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/20/2021.05.18.444685.full
AB  - Objective Neural activity represents a functional readout of neurons that is increasingly important to monitor in a wide range of experiments. Extracellular recordings have emerged as a powerful technique for measuring neural activity because these methods do not lead to the destruction or degradation of the cells being measured. Current approaches to electrophysiology have a low throughput of experiments due to manual supervision and expensive equipment. This bottleneck limits broader inferences that can be achieved with numerous long-term recorded samples.Approach We developed Piphys, an inexpensive open source neurophysiological recording platform that consists both hardware and software. It is easily accessed and controlled via a standard web interface through Internet of Things (IoT) protocols.Main Results We used a Raspberry Pi as the primary processing device and Intan bioamplifier. We designed a hardware expansion circuit board and software to enable voltage sampling and user interaction. This standalone system was validated with primary human neurons, showing reliability in collecting real-time neural activity.Significance The hardware modules and cloud software allow for remote control of neural recording experiments as well as horizontal scalability, enabling long-term observations of development, organization, and neural activity at scale.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.