. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jun 15.

Published in final edited form as: J Neurosci Methods. 2013 Apr 4;216(2):79–86. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.03.022

Table 1.

Comparison of sleep recording systems in mice.

	Tethered System	Wireless System	New System
Commutator	Needed	Not needed	Not needed
Housing cages	Specialized	Standard	Standard
Weighted pressure on the mouse	Present (caused by tether)	Present (caused by transponder)	Minimal
Surgical invasiveness	Minimal	Large	Minimal
Typical surgery duration	Less than 30 min	More than 30 min	Less than 30 min
Duration of EEG/EMG recordings	Unlimited	Limited (batteries allow continuous use of transponder for ~2 weeks)	Unlimited (transponder batteries can be changed during experiments)
EEG/EMG telemetry transponders	Not used	Mouse transponder (~4g)	Either mouse or a heavier rat transponder can be used
Core body temperature analysis	No	Yes	No
Motion detection	No	Direct	Indirect

Disadvantageous features of the systems are shown in bold.