A Digital Signal Amplification Device for Microelectrode Arrays based on Stochastic Resonance

Abstract

In this work, an experimental study was carried out about the construction of an amplification equipment based on the phenomenon of stochastic resonance (SR), which was initially thought to detect spikes and bursts from human and animal neuronal tissue, both in vitro (from microelectrode array, MEA) and in vivo, from electrodes in the cerebral cortex of mammals. The implemented equipment was called CADSR (Computer-Aided Digital Stochastic Resonator) and brings as innovation the fact of being controlled and monitored by the computer, through a graphical interface that allows an automatic tuning, making it possible to obtain the optimum level of noise to maintain SR in real-time. Experimental results show that for electrical signals from multi-electrode arrays with amplitude below 25 microvolts, the amplification system using stochastic resonance is better than conventional amplifier systems, which use operational amplifiers in linear configurations.

Keywords

• multielectrode
• signal
• stochastic
• resonance
• amplifier