Deciphering the neural patterns underlying brain functions is essential to understanding how neurons are organized into networks. This deciphering has been greatly facilitated by optogenetics and its combination with optoelectronic devices to control neural activity with millisecond temporal resolution and cell type specificity. However, targeting small brain volumes causes photoelectric artefacts, in particular when light emission and recording sites are close to each other. We take advantage of the photonic properties of tapered fibres to develop integrated ‘fibertrodes’ able to optically activate small brain volumes with abated photoelectric noise. Electrodes are positioned very close to light emitting points by non-planar microfabrication, with angled light emission allowing the simultaneous optogenetic manipulation and electrical read-out of one to three neurons, with no photoelectric artefacts, in vivo. The unconventional implementation of two-photon polymerization on the curved taper edge enables the fabrication of recoding sites all around the implant, making fibertrodes a promising complement to planar microimplants.

破译大脑功能背后的神经模式对于理解神经元如何组织成网络至关重要。光遗传学及其与光电设备的结合极大地促进了这种破译，以控制具有毫秒时间分辨率和细胞类型特异性的神经活动。然而，针对小脑容量会导致光电伪影，特别是当光发射和记录位置彼此靠近时。我们利用锥形光纤的光子特性来开发集成的“纤维电极”，能够通过减少光电噪声来光学激活小脑容量。通过非平面微加工将电极放置在非常靠近发光点的位置，具有角度的光发射允许在体内同时进行光遗传学操作和一到三个神经元的电读出，没有光电伪影。在弯曲的锥形边缘上非常规地实施双光子聚合，可以在植入物周围制造重新编码位点，使纤维电极成为平面微型植入物的有希望的补充。