Stimulus-induced gamma activity in the electrocorticogram of freely moving rats: the neuronal signature of novelty detection.

To investigate the cortical activity pattern associated with the exploration and identification of a novel object we recorded the intracranial electrocorticogram (ECoG) in the barrel cortex of freely moving adult rats using wireless technology. We report here that the exploration and detection of a novel object correlate with a transient increase of synchronized oscillatory activity in the 40–47 Hz frequency band. This specific cortical activity pattern occurs 200–300 ms after the first sensory contact with the novel stimulus and decreases in power in the subsequent recording sessions with the same object. During the first explorative session the increase in 40–47 Hz is associated with a si…

Monitoring brain activity in preterms: mathematics helps to predict clinical outcome: Figure 1

Models for preterm cortical development using non invasive clinical EEG

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate the piglet and the mouse as model systems for preterm cortical development. According to the clinical context, we used non invasive EEG recordings. As a prerequisite, we developed miniaturized Ag/AgCl electrodes for full band EEG recordings in mice and verified that Urethane had no effect on EEG band power. Since mice are born with a “preterm” brain, we evaluated three age groups: P0/P1, P3/P4 and P13/P14. Our aim was to identify EEG patterns in the somatosensory cortex which are distinguishable between developmental stages and represent a physiologic brain development. In mice, we were able to find clear differences between age groups wit…

A novel miniature telemetric system for recording EEG activity in freely moving rats

Telemetric recording systems offer the advantage to monitor physiological parameters in freely moving animals without any restrictions in their explorative behaviour. We present a novel, inexpensive, portable and reusable telemetric system to record the electroencephalogram (EEG) from adult freely moving rats under various experimental conditions. Our system consists of an implantable transmitter which communicates at a sampling rate of 500 Hz bi-directional with a receiver via radio transmission (in EU: 868.35 MHz; in USA: 916.5 MHz) over a distance of up to 3 m. The switching time between receiving and transmitting signals is 20s and the data transmission rate amounts to 115.2 kbps. The r…