A compact multichannel system for acquisition and processing of neural signals.

An increasing popularity of multichannel recordings from freely behaving animals and the need to develop a practical brain-machine interface has fuelled the development of miniature multichannel recording systems. Here we describe our prototype miniature 64-channel acquisition system that could be used for multichannel recordings in freely behaving monkeys or other large animals. The system's features include an high impedance input for neurophysiology electrodes, an integrated battery fed circuitry with a 64 low-noise multiplexed amplifiers array that permits the parallel recording of all channels, a 10-bit resolution ADC, an FPGA digital core for online processing and data transmission, a USB 2.0 link and a custom software for data visualization and whole system control.