T-Rex: sTandalone Recorder of EXperiments; An easy and versatile neural recording platform

Abstract

AbstractRecording time in invasive neuroscientific empirical research is short and must be used as efficiently as possible. Time is often lost due to long setup times and errors by the researcher. Minimizing the number of manual actions reduces both and can be achieved by automating as much as possible. Importantly, automation should not reduce the flexibility of the system. Currently, recording setups are either custom-made by the researchers or provided as a module in comprehensive neuroscientific toolboxes, and no platforms exist focused explicitly on recording. Therefore, we developed a lightweight, flexible, platform- and measurement-independent recording system that can start and record experiments with a single press of a button. Data synchronization and recording are based on Lab Streaming Layer to ensure that all major programming languages and toolboxes can be used to develop and execute experiments. We have minimized the user restrictions as much as possible and imposed only two requirements on the experiment: The experiment should include a Lab Streaming Layer stream, and it should be able to run from a command line call. Further, we provided an easy-to-use interface that can be adjusted to specific measurement modalities, amplifiers, and participants. The presented system provides a new way of setting up and recording experiments for researchers and participants. Because of the automation and easy-to-use interface, the participant could even start and stop experiments by themselves, thus potentially providing data without the experimenter’s presence.