SPIKE-TRAIN ACQUISITION, ANALYSIS AND REAL-TIME EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL USING A GRAPHICAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE (LABVIEW(R))

A solutionis described for the acquisition on a personal computer of s tandard pulses derived from neuronal discharge, measurement of neurona l discharge times, real-time control of stimulus delivery based on spe cified inter-pulse interval conditions in the neuronal spike train, an d on-line display and analysis of the experimental data The hardware c onsisted of an Apple Macintosh IIci computer and a plug-in card (Natio nal Instruments NB-MIO16) that supports A/D, D/A, digital I/O and time r functions. The software was written in the object-oriented graphical programming language LabView(R). Essential elements of the source cod e of the LabView(R) program are presented and explained. The use of th e system is demonstrated in an experiment in which the reflex response to muscle stretch are assessed for a single motor unit in the human m asseter muscle.