A Hybrid System for Exploring Cortically-Based Environmental Sensing

This paper introduces a novel mechano-bio hybrid system that we are developing which incorporates auditory cortical responses from awake and unrestrained rats as a potential biological sensor signal for guided system locomotion. With the system we investigated the feasibility of extracting parameters from neural recordings that could be used to detect the occurrence of regular auditory stimuli ("clicks") emitted from a fixed sound source and estimate its distance. Rats were chronically implanted with planar silicon-based multielectrode arrays in the auditory cortex. They were placed onto a remotely-controlled mobile robot and passively moved along a linear track which had a sound source at one end. Simultaneous neural recordings showed significant modulation during stimuli. We demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining and analysing neural recordings from awake and unrestrained animals riding on the motorized platform using classical neurophysiology techniques (ie, peri-stimulus time histograms or PSTHs). The concepts demonstrated here could be extended relatively easy to other animals in other sensory areas to augment computer sensing and robot control applications