Name: chronic transcranial electrical stimulation and intracortical recording in rats
Uploaded: 2018-05-11T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Chronic Transcranial Electrical Stimulation and Intracortical Recording in Rats at JoVE.com

This work was supported by EU-FP7-ERC-2013-Starting grant (No.337075), the &#39;Momentum&#39; Program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (LP2013-62), and the GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00018 grant. We thank M&#225;t&#233; Koz&#225;k for documenting the stimulation and recording electrodes and Mih&#225;ly V&#246;r&#246;slakos for the fruitful discussions during protocol design.

All methods described here are in accordance with the directives of the European Communities Council (86/609 ECC) and have been approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Research at the Albert Szent-Gy&#246;rgyi Medical and Pharmaceutical Center of the University of Szeged (XIV/218/2016).
1. Fabrication of the Stimulation Electrodes
<ol>
	<li>To make one stimulation electrode, cut six 10 cm long pieces of miniature hook-up wires, remove 2 cm of the cladding on one end, and 1 cm on the oth...

<ol>
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The most critical step of this protocol is the gluing of the electrode package on the bone surface. In case of improper sealing, a gap is formed between the electrodes and the bone, and secondary scar tissue can grow into this gap, which lessens the quality of stimulation. The bone surface must be completely dry during the steps of sticking on the package, and in the case of experiencing instability of the electrodes, it must be removed and replaced with a new package to gain the best results.
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Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is a valuable methodological approach to influence brain activity in a temporally constrained manner. Depending on the size and placement of the stimulation electrodes, TES can affect large brain volumes and entrain neuronal populations diffusely1,2,3. Transcranial direct current stimulation is already medically approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder4,5, and many studies focus on showing the cognitive effects of transcranial stimulation in humans6,7. Furthermore, promising results were reported regarding the potential of TES in controlling epileptic seizures8,9.
Despite the intensive research, there are still many open questions regarding the detailed mechanism of action, potential side-effects, and the long-term outcome of applying this method10,11,12. Therefore, it is critically important to have a robust, reproducible protocol to investigate the effects of TES in animal models. Given that many disorders (e.g., depression, epilepsy, and schizophrenia) can only be extensively investigated in awake animals, and the nature of these medical conditions usually necessitate long-term treatment, we provide a protocol for chronic implantation of transcranial electrodes in rats. The method presented here can be used for behavioral studies or can be combined with implantation of recording electrodes (i.e., wires, silicone probes, juxtacellular electrodes) or with chronic cranial windows for electrophysiological experiments and imaging studies, respectively. Depending on the experimental design, the timing of the stimuli can be either random or event-triggered to specific behavioral cues, or to the electrophysiological hallmarks of the particular brain states (seizures, theta oscillations)8,11,13.
It is important to mention that in contrast to the currently used human approach, which uses an embodiment of electrodes placed on the skin, here we show a method that employs subcutaneous implantation right over the surface of the temporal bone, since rats barely tolerate anything placed on their skin which is easily accessible using their paws.
In line with the principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement, due to the chronic nature of implantation, this method helps to reduce the number of animals, since each animal can be recruited in different experimental conditions for months, allowing the use of fewer animals to test various hypotheses.
In the present study, we provide a detailed, step-by-step protocol of transcranial stimulation electrode manufacturing (Figure 1A-B) and demonstrate the chronic implantation of these electrodes over the temporal bones of a six-month-old male Long-Evans rat.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Cyanoacrylate liquid</td>
			<td>Henkel</td>
			<td>Loctite 401</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cyanoacrylate gel</td>
			<td>Henkel</td>
			<td>Loctite 454</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wire for stimulation electrodes</td>
			<td>Phoenix Wire Inc.</td>
			<td>36744MHW - PTFE Microminiature Hook-Up Wire</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Board spacer</td>
			<td>E-tec Interconnect</td>
			<td>SP1-020-S378/01-55</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Connector</td>
			<td>E-tec Interconnect</td>
			<td>P2510I-02</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tape packaging for stimulation electrodes</td>
			<td>Nexperia</td>
			<td>74HC1G00GW</td>
			<td>Tape packaging of any integrated circuit with SOT-353 case can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Grip Cement Industrial Grade</td>
			<td>Caulk Dentsply</td>
			<td>675571 (powder) 675572 (solvent)</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Electroconductive gel</td>
			<td>Rextra</td>
			<td>ECG Gel</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recording electrode wire</td>
			<td>California Fine Wire Co.</td>
			<td>.002 (50 micron) Tungsten 99.95% (CFW Material #: 100-211), HMl-Natural, cut to 3.0 inch pieces, Round, Cut length piece wire</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultrafine scissors</td>
			<td>Hammacher Instrumente</td>
			<td>Stainless HSB 544-09</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Stainless steel tube</td>
			<td>Vita Needle Company</td>
			<td>29 RW, 304SS Tubing, T.I.G. Welded and Plug</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High speed rotary saw</td>
			<td>Dremel</td>
			<td>Model # 395</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rotary saw holder</td>
			<td>Dremel</td>
			<td>Model # 220</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rotary saw cut-off wheel</td>
			<td>Dremel</td>
			<td>Model # 409</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ocular sticks</td>
			<td>Lohmann-Rauscher</td>
			<td>Pro-ophta Ocular Sticks</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wet disinfectant</td>
			<td>Egis</td>
			<td>Betadine</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dry disinfectant</td>
			<td>Wagner Pharma</td>
			<td>Reseptyl-urea</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Drilling machine</td>
			<td>NSK-Nakanishi United Kingdom</td>
			<td>Vmax35RV Pack</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anchoring screws</td>
			<td>Antrin Miniature Specialties, Inc.</td>
			<td>000-120x1/16 SL BIND MS SS</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

chronic transcranial electrical stimulation and intracortical recording in rats

Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is a powerful and relatively simple approach to diffusely influence brain activity either randomly or in a closed-loop event-triggered manner. Although many studies are focusing on the possible benefits and side-effects of TES in healthy and pathologic brains, there are still many fundamental open questions regarding the mechanism of action of the stimulation. Therefore, there is a clear need for a robust and reproducible method to test the acute and the chronic effects of TES in rodents. TES can be combined with regular behavioral, electrophysiological, and imaging techniques to investigate neuronal networks in vivo. The implantation of transcranial stimulation electrodes does not impose extra constraints on the experimental design while it offers a versatile, flexible tool to manipulate brain activity. Here we provide a detailed, step-by-step protocol to fabricate and implant transcranial stimulation electrodes to influence brain activity in a temporally constrained manner for months.

The implantation of chronic stimulation electrodes (Figure 1B) can be combined with additional implantation of recording electrodes (Figure 1C-D). Such settings are suitable to form on-demand recording and stimulation systems to interfere with specific brain activities. Here we present representative results of a closed-loop epilepsy detection and intervention system, applied on Long-Evans rats expressing spontan...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Chronic Transcranial Electrical Stimulation and Intracortical Recording in Rats at JoVE.com

Chronic Transcranial Electrical Stimulation and Intracortical Recording in Rats

This detailed protocol describes transcranial stimulation electrode placement on the temporal bone in order to investigate the short- and long-term effects of transcranial electrical stimulation in freely moving rats.

Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) is a powerful and relatively simple approach to diffusely influence brain activity either randomly or in a ...

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