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Stimjim: open source hardware for precise electrical stimulation

View ORCID ProfileNathan Cermak, Matthew A. Wilson, View ORCID ProfileJackie Schiller, View ORCID ProfileJonathan P. Newman
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/757716
Nathan Cermak
1Department of Physiology, The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
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  • For correspondence: cerman07@protonmail.com
Matthew A. Wilson
2Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
3Open Ephys Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Jackie Schiller
1Department of Physiology, The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
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Jonathan P. Newman
2Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
3Open Ephys Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Abstract

Electrical stimulation is a simple and powerful tool to perturb and evoke neuronal activity in order to understand the function of neurons and neural circuits. Despite this, devices that can provide precise current or voltage stimulation are expensive and closed-source. Here, we introduce Stimjim, a capable and inexpensive ($200 USD) open-source instrument for electrical stimulation that combines both function generation and electrical isolation. Stimjim provides microsecond temporal resolution with microampere or millivolt scale precision on two electrically isolated output channels. We demonstrate Stimjim’s utility both in vitro by precisely stimulating brain slices, and in vivo by training mice to perform intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) for brain stimulation reward. During ICSS, Stimjim enables the experimenter to smoothly tune the strength of reward-seeking behavior by varying either the output frequency or amplitude. We envision Stimjim will enable new kinds of experiments due to its open-source and scalable nature.

Footnotes

  • Figure 1, bottom right had an error in the schematic layout for the Improved Howland current pump. This has now been fixed.

  • https://bitbucket.org/natecermak/stimjim

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted November 13, 2019.
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Stimjim: open source hardware for precise electrical stimulation
Nathan Cermak, Matthew A. Wilson, Jackie Schiller, Jonathan P. Newman
bioRxiv 757716; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/757716
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Stimjim: open source hardware for precise electrical stimulation
Nathan Cermak, Matthew A. Wilson, Jackie Schiller, Jonathan P. Newman
bioRxiv 757716; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/757716

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