The core of the "Digital Life" big science plan is to achieve digital analysis of life, and a high-quality, dynamic, and functional life database is the cornerstone of achieving this goal. On July 15, 2025, the team of Academician Cheng Heping published the research results of "24-hour simulated mPFC's miniature 2-photon imaging, EEG-EMG, and video recording during natural behaviors" in Scientific Data. After five years of research and development, they successfully constructed the world's first high-quality cross scale dataset covering millisecond level neuronal calcium activity, second level behavioral activity, and sky high level brain activity status, laying an important data foundation for the study of digital life in mammals.

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) serves as the core of cognitive and behavioral regulation in the brain, participating in advanced functions such as decision-making, emotion regulation, and attention. However, the analysis of its multi-scale dynamic coding patterns has been limited by constraints such as a single behavioral paradigm and recording duration. The team relied on the self-developed miniaturized two-photon microscope (mTPM), combined with a brain electromyography recording system and non-invasive home behavior monitoring technology, to achieve 24-hour continuous and multimodal synchronous observation of mPFC in freely moving mice for the first time. They successfully collected single-cell resolution calcium signals, whole brain electrical activity, electromyographic signals, as well as 12 types of natural behavioral dynamic data such as eating, exercise, and sleep. A total of 526 manually validated neurons were recorded in the study, and a rigorous multimodal data quality control process was established to ensure high data reliability.

This database is currently the world's first mPFC neural population record set that covers the complete day night cycle, multi-channel EEG and EMG, and multiple natural behavioral paradigms, achieving multi-scale neural behavioral integration from cellular to behavioral scales, from seconds to day night cycles. All datasets have been opened for sharing with the global academic community through G-node（ https://doi.gin.g-node.org/10.12751/g-node.1762hn/ ）These highly reliable data provide key support for exploring neuronal population dynamics, brain state transition mechanisms, and the application of AI algorithms in real brain data. They are also an important foundation for AI driven life resolution, digital twins, and precision medicine applications.

　　research team

The first authors of the paper are Han Jiaying, a doctoral student at the Institute of Frontier Interdisciplinary Studies at Peking University, and Zhou Fangxu, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Future Technology. The corresponding authors are Zhang Lifeng, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Molecular Medicine Translational Research at Peking University, and Zhou Fangxu. The team stated that in the future, they will continue to expand cross modal, cross individual, and cross task data collection, leveraging the advantages of the "Multimodal Cross Scale Biomedical Imaging Facility - Nanjing Brain Intelligence Joint Laboratory", promoting the deep linkage between the imaging omics data platform and the "Digital Life" big science plan, and helping to transform "seeing life" into interpretable, simulated, and predictable digital life systems.

[Reference]

Han, J., Zhou, F., et al. 24-hour simultaneous mPFC’s miniature 2-photon imaging, EEG-EMG, and video recording during natural behaviors. Sci Data12, 1226 (2025). doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-05527-2