Friday, April 20, 2012

Sniffs and Spikes

My next technical challenge in the lab is to set up simultaneous recording of sniffing and of neural spikes.  I am planning on putting together a compound device integrating a silicone probe for measuring neural activity and a pressure sensor for measuring sniffing simultaneously.  The trick will be to have all inputs and output go through a single tether wire.  Currently my thinking is that I can use a TDT ZIF-Clip with 64 channel capacity and use 32 of the channels for the electrodes and 4 channels for the pressure sensor (+V, -V, Gnd, Out).  For a commutator, I am thinking of getting a 36 channel slip ring system from the orbex group.

UPDATE:  Turns out there are issues with integrating other inputs/outputs into the ZIF-Clip from TDT.  Currently, the clip uses nearly all of its channels for electrode signals and it is difficult to break any channels out.  My alternate solution is to just put up with a second (third) wire to the head and continue attaching the sniff sensor via a magnet.  We are now miniaturizing our sniff sensor so that it may fit better on the head alongside the electrode and micro drive.

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