The mouse crown is a flexible 3D printed cage that can be used to protect the 3Drive (or other microdrives) for use in freely behaving or head-fixed setups. It serves as a holder for the high-density connector of the probe, protective frame for cementing the implant, and Faraday cage to minimize electrical noise.

The name mouse crown stems from its original purpose. But nothing stops you from also using it on rats or other small animal models.

We have models available that allow head fixation of mice. If you would like to make it compatible with your head fixation system, get in touch for a custom modification.

Components

The crown comes with a 3D printed, flexible, sturdy main body (A), a protective conductive mesh & stencil (B), holding braces to hold thin and thick high-density connectors (e.g., 32 and 64-channel Omnetics) (D), and flex holding braces to flexibly secure EIBs, headstages, or connectors of different sizes (C).

Comparison between our head gear systems

	(RAT CAP BASE & ) COPPER MESH	RAT CAP	MOUSE CAP	3DNEURO MOUSE CROWN
Intended species*	Mouse + Rat	Rat	Mouse*	Mouse*
Difficulty of use	Advanced	Medium	Medium	Medium
Flexibility	Extremely flexible	Flexible (large enough for most use cases)	Limited (space becomes issue with >1 drive)	Limited (space becomes issue with >1 drive)
Time requirement during surgery**	20-30min (mouse), 45-60min (rat)**	5-10min**	5-10min**	5-10min**
Requires soldering during surgery	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Integrated head-fixation	No	No	No	Optional
Available area***	Whole skull
Approx. Weight (printed parts only) ****	0.9g	8.3g	1.575g	1.05g

* implants intended for mice can, in principle, be used in rats as well, but might require reinforcement
** for copper mesh: includes building and closing the mesh; for others: closing the implant after drive(s) secured on skull
*** area on skull that can be used to place drives
**** final weight will vary slightly depending on how much dental acrylic you use