Datasel: an open source tool for the classification of multielectrode data

1. BONOMINI, MP, FERRÁNDEZ, JM., FERNANDEZ, E.

Goettingen, Alemania

Conferencia; 30th Goettingen Neurobiology Conference and 6th Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society; 2005

The number of laboratories using methods for simultaneously recording extracellular activity of several single neurons is growing more and more each day. This technique allows new approaches in the study of large neuronal networks dynamics by means of multielectrode arrays (MEA). This paradigm, however, led to a new technical challenge: the huge amount of data generated per experiment, which can end up in quite an useless mountain of data if an appropriate management is not carried on. Moreover, the data exchange between laboratories using different MEA acquisition systems is hindered by the commercial constraints such as exclusive file structures, many times considered to be intellectual property, high priced licences and hard policies on intellectual rights imposed by the companies of this field. We introduce here, a free open-source application for the management of data based on a general purpose philosophy aimed to the effective data exchange between laboratories. It allows the user to retrieve and quickly identify data from different hardware systems by means of a consistent set of routines for visualization and analysis. These routines enable the user to classify and filter units according to their responses to simple control stimulus presentations. In addition, a component for the easy incorporation of new algorithms is integrated. Classification can be accomplished by automatic clustering of a matrix of processed units calculated from a certain processing stage or simply by removing them by hand from the dataset. Also, a method for data reduction based on temporal windows is implemented. The output of the program is file-structured so that exporting the results to other packages is possible. Finally, the source code is freely available for extension or adaptation.