The technology for producing microelectrode arrays (MEAs) has been developing since the 1970s and extracellular electrophysiological recordings have become well established in neuroscience, drug screening and cardiology. MEAs allow monitoring of long-term spiking activity of large ensembles of excitable cells noninvasively with high temporal resolution and mapping its spatial features. However, their inability to register subthreshold potentials, such as intrinsic membrane oscillations and synaptic potentials, has inspired a number of laboratories to search for alternatives to bypass the restrictions and/or increase the sensitivity of microelectrodes. In this study, we present the fabrication and in vitro experimental validation of arrays of PEDOT:PSS-coated 3D ultramicroelectrodes, with the best-reported combination of small size and low electrochemical impedance. We observed that this type of microelectrode does not alter neuronal network biological properties, improves the signal quality of extracellular recordings and exhibits higher selectivity toward single unit recordings. With fabrication processes simpler than those reported in the literature for similar electrodes, our technology is a promising tool for study of neuronal networks.
https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffnins.2020.00405