A wearable wireless system for olfactory neural recording in freely moving rats based on Wi-Fi technology

• A wireless neural recording system was presented for monitoring olfactory biopotentials from behaving animals.
• Wi-Fi technology (802.11 g standard) was used to transmit neuronal waveforms.
• The system can record 8 channels of olfactory neural signals and afford high data throughput.
• The system was used to collect data from microelectrodes implanted in the olfactory bulb of an awake rat.

A battery-operated wearable wireless olfactory neural recording system (WONRS) based on Wi-Fi technology is presented and characterized for recording individual olfactory neural activities from freely moving rats. The WONRS that constructed of an amplifier headstage, backpack board and user interface software is capable of transmitting up to 54 M bits per second (Mbps) of raw streaming data using IEEE 802.11 g protocol, and can examine and store 8 channels of captured olfactory neuronal firing data synchronously. Since the packets are transmitted over the wireless local area network (WLAN), the WONRS provides a capability of being operated over a very large distance, which enables experimenters to be able to operate the device within almost any laboratory or open field context. A major advantage of the WONRS is the high bandwidth and long transmission range afforded by Wi-Fi technology. Using the WONRS, continuous olfactory neural recordings from an awake and behaving rat were performed. Also, WONRS measured the responses of M/T cells under carvone as odorant stimulation over multiple days. This biosensing system could continuously record the response signal of olfactory neuron and, furthermore, had good stability and long working life.