The Thomas RECORDING multicore microelectrodes were designed by Heribert Reitboeck and Uwe Thomas in 1987 in the Reitboeck lab at the University of Marburg, Germany. The Thomas RECORDING heptode is a fiber microelectrode with an outer diameter of 100µm and 7 individual metal cores insulated from each other by quartz glass. Thomas RECORDING heptodes are very well suited for single unit isolation from a multi-unit-recording. A major problem in extracellular microelectrode recording from cell-dense regions of the brain is the separation of spikes originated from different neurons. The stereotrode method, first described by McNaughton and others [1] is most effective for this purpose. It was reported by Doerr & Schanze [2] that there is a significant improvement of spike sorting performance when using heptodes rather than tetrodes especially in brain areas with high cell densities.

Product Description

Key Features

• Material: Quartz glass insulated Platinum/Tungsten (95%/5%)

• 7 metal cores

• Fiber diameter of 100µm

• Unique material combination

• Biocompatible materials

• Well suited for acute and also for long term chronic recordings

• Very close electrode spacings are possible (down to 100µm) when using Thomas microdrives

• very thin shafts minimize tissue damage

• Suitable for cortical as well as deep brain recordings

Heptode Types

Standard-Heptode

3D-Heptode

Recording Quality

The pictures show extracellular recordings made with a Thomas RECORDING heptodes loaded to a Thomas Heptode Matrix Drive.

Ordering Information

Thomas RECORDING heptodes are available for Thomas microdrives with rubber tube drive (e.g. Mini Matrix and Eckhorn Matrix ) or for motorized and manual single shaft electrode microdrives (e.g. Thomas MEM).  

Selected Publications

[1] McNaughton B, Barnes CA, O´Keefe J. (1983)

The stereotrode: a new technique for simultaneous isolation of several single units in the central nervous system from multiple unit records. J Neurosci Methods 1983; 8: 391-397.

[2] Doerr, C. & Schnaze, T. (2015).

Are Heptodes better than Tetrodes for spike sorting? ScienceDirect; IFAC-PapersOnLine; Volume 48, Issue 20, 2015, Pages 94-99

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