Open Ephys

Mar 17, 2017

Jakob Voigts, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has shared the following regarding www.open-ephys.org. Open Ephys aims to distribute reliable open source software as well as tools for extracellular recording and stimulation.

“Open Ephys is a collaborative effort to develop, document, and distribute open-source tools for systems neuroscience. Since the spring of 2011, our main focus has been on creating a multichannel data acquisition system optimized for recordings in freely behaving rodents. However, most of our tools are general enough to be used in applications involving other model organisms and electrode types.

We believe that open-source tools can improve basic scientific research in a variety of ways. They are often less expensive than their closed-source counterparts, making it more affordable to scale up one’s experiments. They are readily modifiable, giving scientists a degree of flexibility that is not usually provided by commercial systems. They are more transparent, which leads to a better understanding of how one’s data is being generated. Finally, by encouraging researchers to document and share tools they would otherwise keep to themselves, the open-source community reduces redundant development efforts, thereby increasing overall scientific productivity.” – Jakob Voigts

Open Ephys features devices such as the flexDrive, a “chronic drive implant for extracellular electrophysiology”, as well as an arduino-based tetrode twister. The Pulse Pal generates precise voltage pulses. Also featured on Open Ephys is software such as Symphony, a MATLAB-based data acquisition system for electrophysiology.

This research tool was created by your colleagues. Please acknowledge the Principal Investigator, cite the article in which the tool was described, and include an RRID in the Materials and Methods of your future publications. RRID:SCR_021624