The head fixation based on skull cap: An improved protocol used in single unit recording in the vestibular system
Pengyu Ren,
Bowen Li,
Shiyao Dong,
Boqiang Lyu,
Shouping Gong,
Qing Zhang,
Jianqiang Qu,
Peng Han
Affiliations
Pengyu Ren
Department of Neurosurgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 157 West 5th Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710004, China; Departments of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Ave, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
Bowen Li
Division of Health Sciences Informatics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2024 E Monument St, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
Shiyao Dong
Departments of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Ave, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
Boqiang Lyu
Department of Neurosurgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 157 West 5th Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710004, China
Shouping Gong
Department of Neurosurgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 157 West 5th Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710004, China
Qing Zhang
Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Xinhua Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University, 1665 Kongjiang Rd, Shanghai 200093, China
Jianqiang Qu
Department of Neurosurgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 157 West 5th Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710004, China; Corresponding authors.
Peng Han
Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 227 Yanta West Roud, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061, China; Corresponding authors.
Single unit recording has an important application in neuroscience, especially in the vestibular system such as visual stabilization, posture maintenance, spatial orientation and cognition. However, single unit recording conducted in living animals is a demanding technique and non-ideal mechanical stability between the recording location of nerve tissues and the tip of microelectrode always results in failure to obtain successful recordings in the vestibular system. In order to improve the mechanical stability during single unit recording, we constructed a novel head fixation method based on skull cap. This article describes in detail how to construct this novel head fixation. Following the step-by-step procedure mentioned in this article will provide a high-quality mechanical stability for single unit recording in the vestibular system, allowing us to successfully record the nonlinear neural dynamic response over a big magnitude motion stimulation. This improvement of head fixation contributes to the in-depth understanding of the vestibular system.
