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Telemetry system for reliable recording of action potentials from freely moving rats
Author(s) -
Hawley Emerson S.,
Hargreaves Eric L.,
Kubie John L.,
Rivard Bruno,
Muller Robert U.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.10040
Subject(s) - telemetry , amplifier , microelectrode , backpack , transmitter , signal (programming language) , cable gland , computer science , electrical engineering , wireless , channel (broadcasting) , engineering , electrode , physics , telecommunications , structural engineering , cmos , quantum mechanics , programming language
Recording single cells from alert rats currently requires a cable to connect brain electrodes to the acquisition system. If no cable were necessary, a variety of interesting experiments would become possible, and the design of other experiments would be simplified. To eliminate the need for a cable we have developed a one‐channel radiotelemetry system that is easily carried by a rat. This system transmits a signal that is reliable, highly accurate and can be detected over distances of ≥20 m. The mobile part of the system has three components: (1) a headstage with built‐in amplifiers that plugs into the connector for the electrode array on the rat's head; the headstage also incorporates a light‐emitting diode (LED) used to track the rat's position; (2) a backpack that contains the transmitter and batteries (2 N cells); the backpack also provides additional amplification of the single cell signals; and (3) a short cable that connects the headstage to the backpack; the cable supplies power to the headstage amplifiers and the LED, and carries the physiological signals from the headstage to the backpack. By using a differential amplifier and recording between two brain microelectrodes the system can transmit action potential activity from two nearly independent sources. In a future improvement, two transmitters with different frequencies would be used to telemeter signals from four microelectrodes simultaneously. Hippocampus 2002;12:505–513. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.