Blackrock Microsystems CerePlex µ digital headstage for neural recording of animal behaviour

The CerePlex µ, from Blackrock Microsystems, is a small and lightweight digital headstage that provides a platform for simple stimulation and tracking in freely moving rodents. Weighing just 1 g, the device is claimed to be so light that the animal won’t even know it’s there.

The product provides an interface between the Cerebus or CerePlex Direct recording systems and 16 or 32 microelectrodes for high-fidelity transmission and recording of extracellular spikes and local field potentials from the brain. In addition to neural recording, it features an onboard 3-axis magnetometer, accelerometer and gyrometer for monitoring animal behaviour.

The headstage lets the user detect behaviours and movements beyond the traditional video-based approach or EMG recordings. The built-in 6-axis motion sensor (3D accelerometer/gyroscope) will enable the detection of a variety of subtle movements and behaviours with high temporal precision, such as freezing and anxiety, grooming, rearing, movement initiation/termination within operant tasks, circadian rhythms and disease states (turning, shaking, etc).