The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Surface recordings of evoked field potentials from the cerebellum with a flexmea microelectrode array
Author:	Groth, Jonathan David
View Online:	njit-etd2008-083 (xiv, 70 pages ~ 8.9 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Biomedical Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Biomedical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Sahin, Mesut (Committee chair) Alvarez, Tara L. (Committee member) Pfister, Bryan J. (Committee member)
Date:	2008-05
Keywords:	Cerebellum Multijoint control Flexmea microelectroda array
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The cerebellum is an integral part of multijoint control. There are two input pathways to the cerebellar cortex, the mossy fiber and the climbing fiber pathways. The mossy fiber pathway forms a disynaptic input to Purkinje cells through the granular cells. This disynaptic input produces a multicomponent field potential composed of the P1, N 1, N2, N3, N4, and P3 waves. The climbing fiber input forms a monosynaptic input to the Purkinje cells and thus creates a much simpler field potential. The mossy and climbing fiber field potentials were recorded with a FlexMEA microelectrode array from the pial surface of the paramedian lobule. The peripheral stimulation showed that the mossy and climbing fiber field potentials evoked through intramuscular stimulation were consistent with those of the literature. These results verified the experimental setup to be used in the central stimulation. The central stimulation produced only the mossy fiber field potential. The amplitude of the field potentials were mapped out to the location on the electrode array producing unique maps for each stimulation site. ANOVA analysis showed that distinct regions can be associated with a certain region of stimulation. These results show that the FlexMEA is able to record the field potentials from the pial surface of the cerebellar cortex. The 300 um pitch of the electrodes in the array produces distinct patterns with clear regions of activity for different sites of stimulation. In conclusion the FlexMEA can be used to record from cerebellum in behaving animals.