Reverse engineering the brain’s circuits requires the use of the latest techniques and some inhouse developed methods.
I provide the code and 3D designs opensource, feel free to send requests.
Brain recordings are done via probes with many recording sites, across many brain areas, generating massive data sets each session, for each subject.
We’ve adapted spike-sorting software to standardize and automate the procedure by leveraging GPU processors.
To examine behavior in small animals, I designed a 3D-printed model that attaches to the home cage which automatically weighs the animal when it enters.
Subjects indicate decisions with nose pokes, and are given liquid rewards for performance. Remote monitoring allows multiple rigs to be run at once and cross-campus arrangements.
There are a number of proprietary software packages to control behavioral events and synchronize those events with neural signals. However these can be costly, and their compatibility with various hardware can be challenging.
We used the open source suit psychtoolbox to design and implement our own experimental software that displayed eye signals, displayed behavioral variables, and synchronized neural signals within 1 millisecond resolution.