Optical Stimulation and Recording Acquisition Software

Electrophysiological recordings have traditionally been used in neuroscience to document the activities of neurons.  In the last decade, optical imaging techniques have emerged as a viable alternative for examining dynamics of populations of neurons. The most recent development is a construct that permits not only recording at very high spatial, voltage, and temporal resolution but also stimulation of individual neurons completely with optical means. Thus, it is possible to record intracellular events completely non-invasively.
This technique however requires several pieces of equipment, which includes a high frame rate camera, an infrared laser, a digital light processor, movable microscope stages, and data storage devices. To precisely coordinate these hardware, we developed a software that runs on a Python platform using a  modular MVC (Model-View-Controller) approach and based on the PyQT framework. The software is an efficient cost-free alternative to expensive commercial frameworks and is an open source tool that can be readily modified by the scientific community to suit their needs.