The Olympus Research System (RC+S) is an implantable pulse generator (IPG) designed to deliver deep brain stimulation (DBS) like a standard clinical neurostimulator, but which allows recordings of local field potential (LFP) activity from the implanted DBS lead.
LFPs are composite electrical signals generated by the brain. They are conventionally divided into frequency bands, as follows: 0-3 Hz (delta), 4-7 Hz (theta), 8-12 Hz (alpha), 13-30 Hz (beta), 31-200 Hz (gamma), and \>200 Hz (high frequency). The instantaneous amplitude and power of the LFP recordings are believed to represent the degree of synchronization among neurons surrounding the electrode. A transient increase in power in a particular band, in response to a behavioral event, is called an event-related synchronization (ERS), while a transient decrease in power is called event-related desynchronization (ERD). ERD and ERS are typically calculated by averaging the power across time segments and comparing this average to a reference epoch.
Research staff at the University of Minnesota will follow FDA guidelines for software development for the RC+S.
