Instrumentation enabling the chronic assessment of neural activity: A novel case study of hibernation in Ursus americanus

Author

Laske, T.G. ; Garshelis, D.L. ; Iaizzo, P.A. ; Carlson, D. ; Jensen, R. ; Stanslaski, S. ; Weiss, S. ; Afshar, P. ; Cong, P. ; Denison, T.

Author_Institution

Medtronic, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

10-12 Nov. 2011

Firstpage

102

Lastpage

105

Abstract

We present a fully implantable, chronic system for untethered neuroscience research in freely behaving animals. The system infrastructure provides an experimental toolkit for recording electrical signals and activating neural tissues via a neurostimulator. This system provides the ability to investigate the dynamic behavior of neural circuits without the limitations of typical acute laboratory environments, tethered links, or the confounds of anesthesia that may undermine data interpretation. The engineering behind this device is briefly discussed with an emphasis on system considerations for chronic use. We describe here an implant in a black bear, Ursus americanus, to demonstrate system capabilities and provide a report of brain activity during bear hibernation.

Keywords

bioelectric phenomena; biological tissues; brain; data recording; medical signal processing; networks (circuits); neurophysiology; prosthetics; Ursus americanus; acute laboratory environments; anesthesia; chronic assessment; data interpretation; electrical signal recording; hibernation; implantable system; neural activity; neural circuits; neural tissues; neuroscience; neurostimulator; Animals; Instruments; Protocols; Sensors; Surgery; Telemetry; Time domain analysis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1469-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BioCAS.2011.6107737

Filename

6107737