Seung Bae Lee, Ming Yin, Joseph R. Manns, and Maysam Ghovanloo
Volume 60, Issue: 7, Page(s): 1993-2004
Emerging technologies in bioelectronics, particularly those related to neuroprosthetic devices, have the potential to significantly improve patients’ quality of life. Equally important are the tools that allow neuroscientists to conduct basic science experiments in neurophysiology research on animal models to understand the underlying principles behind operation of the nervous system, its maladies, and possible therapies. In this area, a key objective has been increasing the number of simultaneously recorded channels while minimizing damage to the neural tissue, degradation in the quality of the recorded neural signals, or biasing the natural animal behavior. The design and develop of high channel count miniaturized wireless neural recording systems on the transmitter (Tx) side has been well covered in the literature. However, there have been several challenges in designing the receiver (Rx) side, such as complexity of frequency stabilization between Tx and Rx, wide bandwidth to support multiple channels, reliable wireless coverage of the recording arena, and robustness against interference from other RF sources.
In this paper, a complete high performance multi-channel wireless integrated neural recording (WINeR-6) system has been presented with emphasis on the Rx side. WINeR-6 architecture offers wide bandwidth (18 MHz) and high data throughput all the way from the neural tissue to the computer for real time representation of 32 simultaneously recorded channels. A significant feature of the WINeR-6 system is its ability to provide wireless coverage over a large experimental arena (4 m2) without losing data or leaving any blind spots. In an in vivo experiment, location-specific receptive fields of hippocampal place cells were mapped during a behavioral experiment in which a rat completed 40 laps in a large circular track. Wirelessly recorded signals were compared against those acquired from the same animal and the same set of electrodes by a commercial hardwired system and the resulting place fields were validated.