A flexible software tool for temporally-precise behavioral control in Matlab

Wael F. Asaad; Emad N. Eskandar

doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.07.014

A flexible software tool for temporally-precise behavioral control in Matlab

Wael F. Asaad
, Emad N. Eskandar

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

120 Scopus citations

Abstract

Systems and cognitive neuroscience depend on carefully designed and precisely implemented behavioral tasks to elicit the neural phenomena of interest. To facilitate this process, we have developed a software system that allows for the straightforward coding and temporally-reliable execution of these tasks in Matlab. We find that, in most cases, millisecond accuracy is attainable, and those instances in which it is not are usually related to predictable, programmed events. In this report, we describe the design of our system, benchmark its performance in a real-world setting, and describe some key features.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	245-258
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Neuroscience Methods
Volume	174
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.07.014
State	Published - Sep 30 2008
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Behavioral control
Cognition
Human
Matlab
Monkey
Neurophysiology
Psychophysics
Software

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Neuroscience

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10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.07.014

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title = "A flexible software tool for temporally-precise behavioral control in Matlab",

abstract = "Systems and cognitive neuroscience depend on carefully designed and precisely implemented behavioral tasks to elicit the neural phenomena of interest. To facilitate this process, we have developed a software system that allows for the straightforward coding and temporally-reliable execution of these tasks in Matlab. We find that, in most cases, millisecond accuracy is attainable, and those instances in which it is not are usually related to predictable, programmed events. In this report, we describe the design of our system, benchmark its performance in a real-world setting, and describe some key features.",

keywords = "Behavioral control, Cognition, Human, Matlab, Monkey, Neurophysiology, Psychophysics, Software",

author = "Asaad, \{Wael F.\} and Eskandar, \{Emad N.\}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank David Freedman, Tim Buschman, Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, Valerie Yorgan, Markus Siegel, and John Gale for contributions to the software, beta testing, and helpful discussions. We also thank Jeffrey Perry for making the low-level graphic drivers publicly available and for helpful advice regarding their implementation. Anne-Marie Amacher, Ming Cheng, Jason Gerrard, Rollin Hu, Earl Miller, Andrew Mitz and Ziv Williams are appreciated for offering useful ideas for program testing and execution. We are indebted to the CORTEX development team ( http://www.cortex.salk.edu ) for their widely used behavioral control software, which provided an initial framework for the creation of our software. Funding was provided by a Tosteson Fellowship from the Massachusetts Biomedical Research Council to WFA and NEI grant 1R01DA026297, NSF IOB 0645886 and the HHMI to ENE.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.07.014",

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AU - Asaad, Wael F.

AU - Eskandar, Emad N.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank David Freedman, Tim Buschman, Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, Valerie Yorgan, Markus Siegel, and John Gale for contributions to the software, beta testing, and helpful discussions. We also thank Jeffrey Perry for making the low-level graphic drivers publicly available and for helpful advice regarding their implementation. Anne-Marie Amacher, Ming Cheng, Jason Gerrard, Rollin Hu, Earl Miller, Andrew Mitz and Ziv Williams are appreciated for offering useful ideas for program testing and execution. We are indebted to the CORTEX development team ( http://www.cortex.salk.edu ) for their widely used behavioral control software, which provided an initial framework for the creation of our software. Funding was provided by a Tosteson Fellowship from the Massachusetts Biomedical Research Council to WFA and NEI grant 1R01DA026297, NSF IOB 0645886 and the HHMI to ENE.

PY - 2008/9/30

Y1 - 2008/9/30

N2 - Systems and cognitive neuroscience depend on carefully designed and precisely implemented behavioral tasks to elicit the neural phenomena of interest. To facilitate this process, we have developed a software system that allows for the straightforward coding and temporally-reliable execution of these tasks in Matlab. We find that, in most cases, millisecond accuracy is attainable, and those instances in which it is not are usually related to predictable, programmed events. In this report, we describe the design of our system, benchmark its performance in a real-world setting, and describe some key features.

AB - Systems and cognitive neuroscience depend on carefully designed and precisely implemented behavioral tasks to elicit the neural phenomena of interest. To facilitate this process, we have developed a software system that allows for the straightforward coding and temporally-reliable execution of these tasks in Matlab. We find that, in most cases, millisecond accuracy is attainable, and those instances in which it is not are usually related to predictable, programmed events. In this report, we describe the design of our system, benchmark its performance in a real-world setting, and describe some key features.

KW - Behavioral control

KW - Cognition

KW - Human

KW - Matlab

KW - Monkey

KW - Neurophysiology

KW - Psychophysics

KW - Software

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A flexible software tool for temporally-precise behavioral control in Matlab

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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