Shek Sidney, Willey Keith, McNulty Penelope A
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2057, Australia.
J Neurosci Methods. 2006 Apr 15;152(1-2):130-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2005.08.019. Epub 2005 Oct 7.
'Common Electrode' microneurography (i.e. stimulating a nerve and recording return afferent neural activity through the same microelectrode facilitates investigation of linkages between sensory and motor nervous systems in humans. Currently there is no commercial product designed specifically to conduct common electrode microneurography experiments. However, such experiments would advance investigations in several key areas including spinal injury research. In this paper, we report on the successful production and testing (on a human subject) of an integrated amplifier built specifically for this purpose. The amplifier was built using commercially available components to allow for both easy and economical manufacture. In particular, we report on the design requirements and outline our chosen design solutions. The amplifier handles low-level neural signals amidst large 50 Hz interference, with protection against potentially high stimulation voltages of over 100 V dc, with minimal cross-coupling of rapid stimulus pulses onto the high gain amplifier's input, and a short 'blocking' time between stimulation and recording. The amplifier also includes necessary filters, selectable gains and internal stimulator triggering circuits to provide a simple, integrated solution for common electrode operation on human subjects.
“共用电极”微神经电图技术（即通过同一微电极刺激神经并记录返回的传入神经活动）有助于研究人类感觉和运动神经系统之间的联系。目前尚无专门设计用于进行共用电极微神经电图实验的商业产品。然而，此类实验将推动包括脊髓损伤研究在内的几个关键领域的研究。在本文中，我们报告了专门为此目的制造的集成放大器的成功生产及（在人体受试者上的）测试情况。该放大器采用市售组件构建，以便于制造且成本低廉。特别是，我们报告了设计要求并概述了我们选择的设计方案。该放大器能在50Hz的强干扰环境中处理低电平神经信号，可抵御超过100V直流的潜在高刺激电压，快速刺激脉冲对高增益放大器输入的交叉耦合最小，且刺激与记录之间的“阻断”时间较短。该放大器还包括必要的滤波器、可选择增益以及内部刺激器触发电路，为人体受试者的共用电极操作提供了一个简单的集成解决方案。
