A multi-channel telemetry system for brain microstimulation in freely roaming animals

A robo-pigeon based on an innovative multi-mode telestimulation system

“…The ability to control an animal's behavior would also be useful in studies of animal communication and mating behavior. The many potential applications of robo-animals has expanded the focus of biomedical engineering to include the development of robust telemetry systems [1][2][3], stimulation systems [4][5][6][7] and behavior models specifically designed for robo-animals.…”

A portable telemetry system for brain stimulation and neuronal activity recording in freely behaving small animals

“…The telemetry systems for electrical stimulation (Holzer and Shimoyama, 1997;Xu et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2006;Song et al, 2006;Feng et al, 2007) or neuronal activity recording (Grohrock et al, 1997;Hawley et al, 2002;Obeid et al, 2004;Chien and Jaw, 2005;Schregardus et al, 2006;Jürgens and Hage, 2006;Vyssotski et al, 2006;Ativanichayaphong et al, 2008) have been reported in recent years. In one demonstrator, electrical stimulation of the somatosensory cortex (SI) and medial forebrain bundle (MFB) was used as cues and rewards to condition distant rats to execute controlled turns remotely (Talwar et al, 2002).…”

“…In one demonstrator, electrical stimulation of the somatosensory cortex (SI) and medial forebrain bundle (MFB) was used as cues and rewards to condition distant rats to execute controlled turns remotely (Talwar et al, 2002). Xu et al (2004) designed a typical stimulation system which could be used for controlling freely roaming animals. Hawley et al (2002) developed a onechannel telemetry system to record the location-specific activities of hippocampal cells from untethered rats.…”

“…Schregardus et al (2006) designed a lightweight telemetry system for recording neuronal activities in zebra finches, and multi-channel recording telemetry systems have been also described by other authors (Nieder, 2000;Jürgens and Hage, 2006). However, these systems are incompetent to carry on a task of both electrical stimulation and recording in freely behaving small animals, while the combining of stimulation and recording to bring a feedback of control and measurement may be highly useful in studying the neural correlates of stimulation and responses while directing freely moving animals (Xu et al, 2004).…”

A mobile sensor network using autonomously controlled animals

“…Recent research has demonstrated that it is possible to use wireless communication to deliver brain stimulation to guide the movements of rats through a variety of terrains [1,2], by stimulating multiple brain regions to produce stimulus cues for various commanded movements [3], and also rewards to reinforce these movements [4,5]. The rats can be controlled not only while in direct line of sight of a human controller, but also by teleoperation, using signals transmitted from a wireless video camera mounted on the animal's backpack.…”