A neuron emulator for single-electrode settings

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an electronic neuron emulator that has both passive and active electrical properties of a neuron as seen from a single electrode. The main utility of this device is for testing electrophysiological equipment such as a single-electrode voltage clamp or a patch-clamp amplifier. Each spike of the action potential is generated by a limited amount of charge stored on a capacitor. This design results in a more realistic simulation of the action potential generation by ionic currents in a live neuron compared to using a current or voltage source. An embedded microprocessor is used to control the firing of the action potential. Preliminary results from a prototype show that the neuron emulator meets the design specifications and is capable of performing rate responsive current clamp.

Neuron emulation, instrumentation, and communication for a neuroscience instrument

“…To make the testing of these neuroscience instruments easier, an electric neuron emulator that represents both active and passive elements for a model neuron will be very useful [3]. A graphical user interface program will also be designed and created to monitor, control, and save data from a patch clamp, which will ultimately provide a sufficient testing environment for the neuroscience device called the Universal Clamp [4].…”

Implementation of a neuron emulator for patch-clamp settings

“…The available charge is thus limited, yielding a more realistic condition for testing a voltage-or current-clamp singleelectrode amplifier, which is often limited in its current drive strength. This approach was proposed in [6]. Here, we discuss the design choices for a practical implementation and provide circuit analysis in Section II, followed in Section III by simulated and measured results from a prototype system.…”