Large-scale electrophysiology at single-spike resolution

Recent advances in electrode technology - including the development of Neuropixels and SiNAPS probes - have made it possible to routinely capture spike trains from thousands of neurons distributed across the brain. Widespread dissemination of these tools has not only yielded new discoveries but also changed the way in which neuroscientific questions are asked and answered. In this article, we describe the motivations for collecting electrophysiological recordings on this scale, review the basic physical principles underlying these measurements and discuss key considerations for generating optimally useful datasets. We compare the latest devices for large-scale recordings and address challenges and opportunities in data analysis, rigour, reproducibility and data sharing. Finally, we provide a roadmap for future advances in this space. We argue that widely available hardware, software and protocols are now empowering scientists to perform experiments matched to the scale and complexity of the neural circuits that underlie complex mammalian behaviours.