On the Technology Prospects and Investment Opportunities for Scalable Neuroscience

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of advanced neuroscience instruments capable of high-resolution recording and reporting of neural data, analyzing technological prospects and investment opportunities over the next decade.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive categorization of emerging neuroscience technologies and their expected impact timelines for scalable neural data acquisition and analysis.

Findings

Identification of key technological challenges in neural recording and reporting

Categorization of technologies by short, medium, and long-term impact

Insights into investment opportunities in neuroscience instrumentation

Abstract

Two major initiatives to accelerate research in the brain sciences have focused attention on developing a new generation of scientific instruments for neuroscience. These instruments will be used to record static (structural) and dynamic (behavioral) information at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution and report out that information in a form suitable for computational analysis. We distinguish between recording - taking measurements of individual cells and the extracellular matrix - and reporting - transcoding, packaging and transmitting the resulting information for subsequent analysis - as these represent very different challenges as we scale the relevant technologies to support simultaneously tracking the many neurons that comprise neural circuits of interest. We investigate a diverse set of technologies with the purpose of anticipating their development over the span of the next 10 years and categorizing their impact in terms of short-term [1-2 years], medium-term [2-5 years] and longer-term [5-10 years] deliverables.