In general, signal quality and longevity can be improved when the headstage and electrode are firmly cemented on the skull. Due to the lower height from the cantilever effect, mechanical strain is minimized on the connector interface, drastically minimizing motion artifact. Disturbance to the sensitive neural interface caused by direct plug-in/out of the headstage is also significantly reduced, thus improving long-term chronic signal quality.
When the X-Headstage configured with an µHDMI connector is embedded with the electrode, cables can be easily and safely plugged into the animal without anesthetization. The speed efficiency resulting from not having to anesthetize the animal and not worrying about breaking headstage pins or the head cap is considerable. Increases in data collection throughput can also be observed.