Care, Use and Handling

NeuroNexus electrodes are reused across sessions and animals, and most of the failures that end a session or a probe are set up before the recording starts: something that dried on the sites, something that touched them, a wire that was pulled, an array picked up by an edge. This page lists the documents that hold the procedures, by product class, and the rules that apply before any of them.

Research use only. NeuroNexus products and the procedures described here are for non-clinical research use, and must not be used in human or veterinary medical procedures.

The rules#

Each rule is copied in full from the document it comes from.

For silicon probes, from Silicon Probes: Setup, Handling, Cleaning and Care and the acute surgical guide. Handle only by the package, never the shank. Never touch sites with metal instruments or bare hands. Do not let biological material dry on the probe: this is the single most consequential rule in this guide. A probe rinsed within a minute usually recovers; one left until the end of the session often does not. In cleaning, the sequence matters more than any individual step, because alcohol before enzyme fixes protein onto the sites permanently. Never use an ultrasonic cleaner. Cavitation damages sites, substrate and bond wires; the damage is often invisible and shows up as an impedance change. Never autoclave. Steam and pressure degrade polymer components and adhesives and change electrical characteristics permanently. For the ground and reference wires: support the wire rather than the joint, with no tension, no repeated bending and as little manipulation as the procedure allows.

For thin-film grids, from the ECoG and EEG surgical guides. Handle the array with flat-tipped forceps, never sharp ones; if flat-tipped forceps are not available, cut small pieces of silicone tubing and put them on the tips of sharp forceps. A polyimide grid creases if it is picked up by an edge. Do not reposition by sliding. Lift, re-wet and re-place. Sliding a polyimide array across bone abrades the sites. Do not press the array flat. Contact should come from the fit and from surface tension. Pressure on cortex produces a lesion and a slow drift in the signal. Rinse immediately after use with sterile saline. Store flat and protected; a crease in a polyimide array is permanent.

For Vector Arrays, from Deep Brain Targets with Vector Arrays. Clean promptly after each session, never wipe the array face, and inspect the silicon under magnification before each surgery.

Silicon probes#

Silicon Probes: Setup, Handling, Cleaning and Care is the care document: handling, inspection, impedance before mounting, mounting and connecting, cleaning in order, storage and tracking condition across sessions. The surgical procedure is in the acute and chronic surgical guides; the chronic guide also covers connector care over a long implant. Deep Brain Targets with Vector Arrays covers reuse and care of a Vector Array. Z-Coat covers handling of a coated site. Intracortical Microstimulation sets the charge limits that protect a site during stimulation.

Thin-film grids#

Thin-Film Grid Electrodes: Setup, Handling, Cleaning and Care is the care document: handling with flat-tipped forceps, inspection, connection, the placement rules, reference and ground, rinsing, storage flat and tracking condition. The surgical procedure is in the ECoG and EEG surgical guides, and the reference decision in EEG Referencing Techniques.

Headstages and acquisition systems#

The Kontex X-Headstage User Manual covers the X-Series headstages, their armor options and the IP68 build. The SiNAPS Manual covers setup, the calibration run before every experiment and the in-vivo practices for an active-pixel probe. The Data Acquisition Systems overview and the X-Series XDAQ overview cover the systems and their setup.

When a recording is noisy#

Noise Reduction and Troubleshooting is the diagnostic sequence for any chain, with the baseline measurement every later diagnosis is compared against. Technical questions: support@neuronexus.com · +1.734.913.8858.