Software for electrophysiological experiments with a personal computer.
These programs were written for the IBM personal computer equipped with a Tecmar Labmaster analog interface board. The software operates under the MS-DOS operating system; it is written in compiled BASIC and employs short machine-language subroutines for crucial functions. Details are presented on the analog interface routines which make special use of the 9513 counter/timer chip on the Labmaster. Time resolution is about 32 microseconds per sample on the PC and 15 microseconds on the PC/AT. One series of programs performs traditional voltage- and current-clamp experiments on macroscopic currents in whole cells. A second series interfaces with a hardware window discriminator to capture single-channel events in a recirculating buffer; a stimulus can be triggered to fire during an open channel. Off-line programs perform standard analyses, and further processing can be performed with standard spreadsheet programs.
D000818:Animals; D003201:Computers; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008838:Microcomputers; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D012984:Software