A fully wireless platform for correlating behavior and neural data from an implanted, neural recording device: Demonstration in a freely moving swine model

An entirely wireless neural and behavior recording platform has been developed for the purpose of studying cortical circuits during behavior of a freely moving animal with minimal observer intrusion. Our platform consists of (a) a 100-element microelectrode, fully implantable, wireless, broadband neural recording device [1], and (b) a 2-channel, wireless, event tracking system, both of which simultaneously stream asynchronous data to a custom programmed FPGA (field-programmable gate array). All data is packetized and transmitted over Ethernet. The data are received by custom software (in MATLAB) which simultaneously animates neural data and behavioral data for the observer to draw correlations and witness patterns. This platform has been implemented in a 10-month old female Yucatan mini-pig swine model (with the chronic, wireless, neural implant for over 9 months), extracting broadband neural data recorded simultaneously with time stamped behavioral recordings.