Commutator to ULCA Miniscope V3

[Maria Costa]

Hey everyone,

My goal is to use an ULCA Miniscope V3 to image prefrontal neural activity during a Go/No-Go task in freely moving animals.

 My current behavioral protocol includes sessions of 30-45 mints, in a ~ 20 x 17 x 30 cm  behavioral arena, and I was considering the acquisition of a commutator. However, I am not sure if I really need one. 

Assuming I must add a commutator: 

(1) Which supplier do you advise me to choose, or what features should I take into account to ensure the quality of my data? 

(2) Is it possible  to use the same miniscope with and without the commutator (for different experiments) or adding the commutator means that we need to change the miniscope connection to the DAQ? 

(3) I'm running my behavior into a sound-proof box and I wanted your opinion on the placement of the commutator. Is it preferable to be inside the box and close to the setup or outside?

Thank you!

Maria 

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Maria,

I suggest searching this google group for posts discussing commutators as there is already a lot of good information about them here.

1) Some people are happy using low torque commutators from DragonFly but I have heard this are quite difficult to source currently. There are other group that follow DIY commutator designs (search this group for details on those designs).

2) Yes. Most people use a commutator that has a coax connector on both side which means it can be easily swapped in and out of usage.

3) Generally you want to place the commutator on the ceiling of the behavioral environment and near the center.