Purpose:
To develop an artificial mouse phantom for electroretinographic teaching and equipment validation
Methods:
A toy mouse was used as a basis for this project. The filling was removed and metallic spheres were inserted as "eyes" to allow low-resistance contacts with active recording electrodes. Conductive pads were placed "subcutaneously" at the sites for the insertion of reference and ground needle electrodes. Internally, these outside interfaces were connected to a board with passive electronic components that received its input from a light sensor placed on the back of the phantom.
Results:
When connected to standard ERG equipment, the mouse phantom was able to produce intensity-dependent electrical signals upon light stimulation in a Ganzfeld bowl. The circuitry may be used to vary the shape of the generated signal from a spike to a more b-wave like apperance.
Conclusions:
We were able to successfully develop an artificial mouse phantom for electroretinographic teaching where real animals can not be used. Also, such phantoms may be used for calibration of equipment and validation of the setup.
Keywords: electroretinography: non-clinical • electrophysiology: non-clinical • learning