Neuropixel probe

[bendichter]

I was surprised not to see the Neuropixel probe family in this library. Is there a reason they are difficult to add, or have we just not gotten to that yet?

[samuelgarcia]

Hi Ben,
NP probes have 1024 channels but only 384 are used at recording. This make theses probes "dynamic" : in short there are never the same. So the NP are constructed by code for spikeglx or/and openephys depending the auicisition settings.

[alejoe91]

Linking discussion here: SpikeInterface/probeinterface#182

It's definitely on our TODO list to port NP "full" probes here and centralize the metadata and geometry definition.
Not sure when we'll be able to get that done though!

[bendichter]

@alejoe91 and @samuelgarcia

We urgently need Neuropixel probe support in this library, as they're among the most widely used probes in the field. This has been an outstanding request for over a year, and we have an immediate use case requiring this functionality.

We're collaborating with @adamltyson and the Neuro-RSE team at UCL to enhance their brainreg software. The goal is to extend brainreg to output not just spline fits of intracranial objects, but also electrode positions and atlas locations using probe layouts. Our vision is to use ProbeInterface and this library to provide localization support for any probe, with built-in configurations for common probes using this library.

Development is planned for January, and since our brainreg-compatible dataset primarily uses Neuropixel probes, we need this support to make the integration meaningful. Regarding probe representation, I recommend including the entire probe geometry rather than just recorded channels, as this is essential for anatomical analysis. We can discuss adding an optional 'active contact' field separately.

[alejoe91]

Thanks @bendichter for pushing this. I'll work on this over the next couple of days!

[samuelgarcia]

Hi Ben. I will do it.