Burgess, C. P. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2019

RIGBOX: AN OPEN-SOURCE TOOLBOX FOR PROBING NEURONS AND BEHAVIOR

Setting up an experiment in behavioral neuroscience is a complex process that is often managed with ad hoc solutions. To streamline this process we developed Rigbox, a high-performance, open-source software toolbox that facilitates a modular approach to designing experiments (github.com/cortex-lab/Rigbox). Rigbox simplifies hardware I/O, synchronizes data streams from multiple sources, communicates with remote databases, and implements visual and auditory stimuli presentation. Its main submodule, Signals, allows intuitive programming of behavioral tasks. Here we illustrate its function with two interactive examples: a human psychophysics experiment, and the game of Pong. We give an overview of the other packages in Rigbox, provide benchmarks, and conclude with a discussion on the extensibility of the software and comparisons with similar toolboxes. Rigbox runs in MATLAB, with Java components to handle network communication, and a C library to boost performance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Cortical states control visual spatial perception

Many factors modulate the state of cortical activity, but the importance of cortical states for sensory perception remains debated. We trained mice to detect spatially localized visual stimuli, and simultaneously measured local field potentials and excitatory and inhibitory neuron populations across layers of primary visual cortex (V1). Cortical states with low firing rates and correlations between excitatory neurons, and reduced oscillatory activity in Layer 4, accurately predicted single trials of visual spatial detection behavior. Our results show that cortical states exert strong effects at the initial stage of cortical processing in V1, and play a decisive role for visual spatial behavior in mice.

neuroscience↗