Automated electrical stimulation and recording for retina implant research by LabVIEW configured standalone data acquisition device

To understand the neural processes within retina cell layers recent retina implant research focusses on bidirectional communication with bi-polar and ganglion cells in in-vitro retinal tissue. In order to enable this research we had developed a front-end to stimulate and record retinal cell layers with a slight time gap only and thus avoiding long recording dead times. To ease experiments with this front-end, we developed a versatile and user optimized embedded data acquisition device, named iNODE5. This can be configured using a LabVIEW based graphical user interface. We adapted the front-end to the form factor of the commercial measurement device USB-6009OEM from National Instruments. Now, for evaluation and parameter testing the front-end can be plugged into the National Instruments board and controlled via a graphical user interface which enables the export of the basic configuration parameters for later automated standalone measurement and stimulation. For this the front-end is attached to the iNODE5 which reads the experiment configuration from the personal computer via USB or SD-card. The automated electrical stimulation and recording can be started or stopped by a terminal program or a button placed on the iNODE5.