Argo: rat spikes and sheep auditory surface mapping, 2021
Lab or organization
Acute Argo recordings in rats and sheep
The 2021 Argo hardware study tests two distinct electrode preparations. The authors’ Paradromics affiliation grounds the company link, not a claim that these results came from today’s Connexus clinical device.
Rat spikes
The methods describe five 5-10 mm microwire arrays implanted into rat somatosensory and prefrontal cortex. The illustrated 1,300-wire array yielded 791 isolated single units under anesthesia. This is a reported array example, not 791 units from every array or a 65,536-neuron recording.
Sheep surface auditory maps
Two sheep underwent acute surface recordings with 12 × 12 mm, 60 µm-pitch arrays. The electrodes recorded local field potentials, not isolated spikes from tens of thousands of neurons.
| Pink-noise analysis | Connected channels | Above response threshold | Statistically significant |
|---|---|---|---|
| One sheep | 30,146 | 21,963 (73%) | 16,412 (54% of total) |
| Second sheep | 31,239 | 17,233 (55%) | 12,590 (40% of total) |
The response threshold was at least 10 µV RMS above baseline. Threshold crossing and statistical significance are different counts. Pure-tone analysis found frequency-specific responses and emerging tonotopic organization; placement, animal variation and operating-room noise could affect the maps.
Boundaries
These are acute, head-fixed, anesthetized preparations. They do not establish chronic survival, stable speech decoding, assistive-device control or a completed human implant result. The electronics’ larger capacity and greater-than-eight-hour continuous-recording specification are not the implanted channel count or a long-term tissue follow-up.
The paper discusses a smaller floating architecture as future development. The modern Connexus study is cataloged separately rather than projected backward onto Argo.