Abstract
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, time-aligns datastreams 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 running experiments 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.
Significance Statement Configuring the hardware and software components required to run a behavioral neuroscience experiment and manage experiment-related data is a complex process. In a typical experiment, software is required to design a behavioral task, present stimuli, read hardware input sensors, trigger hardware outputs, record subject behavior and neural activity, and transfer data between local and remote servers. Here we introduce Rigbox, which to the best of our knowledge is the only software toolbox that integrates all the aforementioned software requirements necessary to run an experiment. This MATLAB-based package provides a platform to rapidly prototype experiments. Multiple laboratories have adopted this package to run experiments in cognitive, behavioral, systems, and circuit neuroscience.
Footnotes
Author reports no conflict interest.
This work was funded by the Medical Research Council (Doctoral Training Award to CPB), and by the Wellcome Trust (grant 205093 to MC and KDH).
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
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