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Backyard Brains presents: How to Record from Cricket Legs
First, get some crickets at your local pet store and, as usual, put them on ice. Now,
the key thing here is to cut the leg such that there's a little bit of the Coxa attached
to the end of the leg you cut.
Now, notice we have the Coxa, the Femur, the Tibia and the Tarsus. You should familiarize
yourself with the anatomy.
Let's put one electrode in the femur, and one in the coxa. There's not much of a response
when I touch the barbs on the leg, but what if I lightly breathe on the leg?
Now, let's have both electrodes in the femur.
This is what we've done in the past without much luck.
There is a response when I touch the barbs on the tibia, but it's rather weak.
But wait, now let's put one electrode in the femur and one in the tarsus.
This has very high, spontaneous discharge rate and is also very sensitive to touching the barbs
on the tibia.
And finally, with one electrode in the tarsus and one in the coxa, you have a preparation
that is very sensitive to moving the barbs on the tibia and also lightly breathing on
the leg.
So, with careful placement of your electrodes you're gonna find you get just as good responses
from the cricket leg as you do from the cockroach.
Backyard Brains, Neuroscience for Everyone!