Acute Recording
An acute recording is a single-session preparation: the probe is inserted under anesthesia, recordings are made over several hours, and the animal is not recovered.
The probe is held in a micromanipulator on a stereotaxic frame, so the sites are repositioned during the session and the same probe is used again in later animals.
What the preparation gives: any target without prior surgery, repositioning of the sites during the recording, and no tissue response, so the signal-to-noise ratio in the first hours is as good as the probe allows. What it excludes: awake behavior and tracking of the same neurons across days, and the anesthetic changes the activity patterns recorded. Typical applications are receptive-field mapping, characterization of response properties, deep-structure recording, pharmacology and developmental work.
The acute package is the A-Series, with ZIF and EIB alternatives; a SmartLink headstage mates it directly and streams to XDAQ or Smartbox. Because the probe is reused, the cleaning and impedance checks in probe setup are part of the preparation. The surgical steps are in the acute surgical guide; the alternative is a chronic recording.
Typical values
| Duration | hours, one session |
|---|---|
| Anesthesia | yes, typically |
| Package | A-Series; ZIF, EIB alternatives |
| Probe reuse | yes, with cleaning and impedance checks between animals |