I have to assemble a rig for extracellular electrophysiology in mice brain stem. The target brain region is deep, and the mice will be head fixed during the recordings. I wonder how critical is the anti-vibration table (air table) for such recordings. Has anyone ever tried this?
Dear Pranjul,
we use air tables for our in vivo recordings of the auditory brainstem. I have been told that it is not essential that they are pressurized for good recordings, but that will depend on the vibration in the building/surroundings. The weight of the table already reduces the vibrations.
You can have look at your electrode under a 40x objective that is mounted on your table. If you can see the electrode move when, for example, someone walks by, the vibrations may move the electrode and they may be felt by the animal and therefore affect your recordings.
Good luck!
We do extracellular recordings in slices and just use a heavy metal slab (about 1 cm thick) placed on old tennis ball, or big rubber stoppers ~2cm in diameter). On a regular lab bench is fine, desk-height is best, with no activity going on at the rest of the bench.
Thanks, Karen Parfitt and Martijn Sierksma, for your suggestions. I think using rubber feet should suffice.
I don't know if it will answer your question, but I also take an electrophysiological recording and perform this operation on a large, solid but ordinary table. It has no anti-vibration feature. If you fix the animal in stereotaxy well, I don't think you will have any problems. but anyway, i hope you get some other answers so you can be sure. good luck.
Thanks all for your responses. I am now using rubber feet, and it's working well so far.
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