DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEM FOR NEURAL ACTIVITY RECORDINGS

Abstract

Recordings and analysis of neural activity help to discover the underlying processes of the brain functioning. These studies could have huge impact on the development of highly promising technologies such are: cognitive computing, machine learning, human-machine interfaces, bionic prosthetic devices, etc. Although the technology and devices of these recordings are continuously improved, there are still many obstacles in getting high quality data due to complicated nature, small amplitudes and inherited noises of signals. 

To be able to register such delicate signals, neural activity recording systems are plugged with complex analog and digital signal conditioning circuits. Every node in these recording systems is crucial for getting meaningful and precision data. But with every additional element introduced in the system, the registered signals experience more distortion. These distortions make the signal analysis and interpretation processes more sophisticated and sometimes even impossible. 

A system for neural activity recordings have been designed and built based on the “National Instruments” PXI platform. Also, a computer program has been developed in NI LabVIEW programming environment to control and visualize the data acquisition process.

The designed system has a number of distinct advantages compared to commercially available neural activity recording systems: it has a wider dynamic range, a higher sampling rate and introduces less distortions of recorded signals. 

In this paper, the design, characteristics and the results of preliminary testing of the neural activity recording system are presented.