Rat cap

The rat cap was designed in the Buzsaki lab as a fast and flexible solution for protecting silicon probe implants on rats. It consists of a headplate that is connected to the skull, two side walls to close off the implant after probe insertion, and an (optional) lid that can be used to close off the implant.  The rat cap exposes the whole top of a typical rat skull, giving you maximal space to place multiple microdrives, fibers, screws, or other implants.

The design is open source, so you can get all the information to make it yourself in the link below. If you prefer a prepared solution with the necessary parts, we offer it here. Our rat cap comes with

• 3D printed headplate, side walls, and lid, tapped and with screws
• long header pins to attach probe connectors to the cap
• conductive copper tape that can be used to line the inner sides of the rat cap to create a Faraday cage

Detailed assembly instructions including videos can be found on the Buzsaki lab github page. If you want to print some parts of the design yourself, you can also find the source files there. For a deeper dive into protective headgear, check out headgear info page.