Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
78 lines (52 loc) · 4.08 KB

README.markdown

File metadata and controls

78 lines (52 loc) · 4.08 KB
Raw

Welcome to MindControl

Introduction

MindControl is a software tool that allows a researcher to utilize optogenetics to manipulate neural activity in a freely moving worm for behavioral neuroscience experiments. MindControl analyzes a video stream of a swimming nematode and in real time it generates an illumination pattern that targets specific neurons or cells within the worm. The software can output these patterns to a digital micrommirror device in a closed loop. In this way, a researcher can train arbitrary pulses of laser light only on specific cells or neurons of a worm as it moves. The software records detailed information about the worm's position, orientation and the state of the system for every frame of the video stream. This data is recorded in a human- and computer- readable YAML file. The software optionally also outputs raw and annotated video streams for later analysis. The MindControl-analysis software suite generates quantitative graphs and figures of nematode behavior based on the output from MindControl.

MindControl is the software component of [CoLBeRT] 4 (Controlling Locomotion and Behavior in Real-Time) as described in Leifer, A.M., Fang-Yen, C., Gershow, M., Alkema, M., Samuel, A.D.T., "Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity with high spatial resolution in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans," Nature Methods, Submitted (2010).

Authors

MindControl is written by Andrew Leifer with help from Marc Gershow. It is a product of the Samuel Lab in the Department of Physics and the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University.

Most Up To Date Version

The most up to date version of the MindControl software will always be available at http://github.com/samuellab/mindcontrol

License

With the exception of certain libraries in the 3rdPartyLibs/ folder, all of MindControl is released under the GNU Public License. This means you are free to copy, modify and redistribute this software.

How to Cite

If you use any portion of this code or software in your research, please cite:

Leifer, A.M., Fang-Yen, C., Gershow, M., Alkema, M., Samuel, A.D.T., "Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity with high spatial resolution in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans," Nature Methods, Submitted (2010).

Requirements

The software has different requirements depending on whether you plan to compile the code, or run an existing pre-compiled binary. Moreover, there are different compile targets and executables for different hardware environments.

Quick Start

The quickest way to get a feel for the software is to run the VritualMC.exe pre-built executable which is packaged in a zip file and availabe for download at http://github.com/downloads/samuellab/mindcontrol/MindControlDEMO.zip VirtualMC.exe will run on any Windows XP system and requires only the OpenCV 1.1 run-time libraries which are bundled in the zip file. Follow the README included in the zip.

Compiling Your Own Binaries

To utilize camera or micromirror hardware functionality, you will need to compile the software from source.

The code compiles under Windows XP. At a minimum it requires:

  • mingw
  • OpenCV 1.1
  • msysgit
  • make
  • awk

To compile any of the calibration routines additionally requires:

  • MATLAB

To compile an executable that uses a camera and DLP requires

  • BitFlow framegrabber SDK
  • VIALUX ALP Basic DLP USB SDK

See the makefile for more details about the different compile targets.

Contact

Please contact Andrew Leifer, leifer (at) fas (dot) harvard.edu with questions or feedback.