NeuroNexus · neuronexus.com · Glossary
Neural Probe
A neural probe is an implantable device that carries one or more recording or stimulating sites into neural tissue, so that the activity of neurons can be measured, or driven, at a known position. Most are electrical; newer designs add optical and chemical channels.
Four types are in use. A silicon probe has its sites at positions fixed by a lithographic mask, the same on every probe of a design; it descends from the Michigan probe of 1970 (Wise et al. (1970)), and NeuroNexus makes more than 210 catalog designs of it. A microwire or tetrode has its tip placed by hand. A thin-film grid is the flexible polymer array for a surface. An active-pixel probe digitizes under each site, up to a thousand on one shank. Sites in a line profile depth; a cluster at 20 to 25 µm records one neuron on several sites for sorting (Buzsáki (2004)). The rest is in Neural Probes: What They Are, How They Work, and How to Choose One; the catalog is at silicon neural probes. Research use only.
Typical values
| Types | silicon (micromachined), wire and tetrode, flexible polymer, CMOS active-pixel |
|---|---|
| Sites per probe | 1 (microwire) to 1,024 (active-pixel) |
| NeuroNexus silicon catalog | more than 210 designs, 4 to 1,024 sites, 1 to 16 shanks, 1.5 to 60 mm |
| Lineage | the Michigan probe, from 1970 |
References
Related Terms
Cite this term
NeuroNexus. "Neural Probe." NeuroNexus Glossary, updated 2026-11-05. https://www.neuronexus.com/resources/glossary/neural-probe