Real-time development of data acquisition and analysis software for hands-on physiology education in neuroscience: G-PRIME.
We report on the real-time creation of an application for hands-on neurophysiology in an advanced undergraduate teaching laboratory. Enabled by the rapid software development tools included in the Matlab technical computing environment (The Mathworks, Natick, MA), a team, consisting of a neurophysiology educator and a biophysicist trained as an electrical engineer, interfaced to a course of approximately 15 students from engineering and biology backgrounds. The result is the powerful freeware data acquisition and analysis environment, "g-PRIME." The software was developed from week to week in response to curriculum demands, and student feedback. The program evolved from a simple software oscilloscope, enabling RC circuit analysis, to a suite of tools supporting analysis of neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission analysis in invertebrate model systems. The program has subsequently expanded in application to university courses, research, and high school projects in the US and abroad as free courseware.
Lott
Gus K
GK
Howard Hughes Medical Instituted, Janelia farm Research Campus, 19700 Helix Dr, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA. lottg@janelia.hhmi.org
Johnson
Bruce R
BR
Bonow
Robert H
RH
Land
Bruce R
BR
Hoy
Ronald R
RR
D019295:Computational Biology / Q000193:education; D003479:Curriculum; D004500:Education, Graduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004517:Education, Professional; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000193:education*; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000193:education*; D012984:Software; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods; D014495:Universities; D014584:User-Computer Interface