SpikeGLX Download Page
Synchronized acquisition from Imec neural probes and NI-DAQ devices.
- Get compiled apps, support and help stuff on this page.
- See what's new on the site here.
- The source code repo is here.
This site supports prototype and currently shipping commercial products. The latest commercial PXI-based components are:
- Hardware:
Neuropixels 1.0 probes
(also called phase3B2).- Software:
SpikeGLX 3.0
(also called phase30).
What Is SpikeGLX?
SpikeGLX is a recording system for extracellular neural probes. The emphasis is on concurrent synchronous recording from high channel count probes together with numerous auxiliary analog and digital channels:
- Concurrent, synchronized acquisition from Imec and NI-DAQ devices.
- Imec Neuropixels phase3A, phase3B, phase20, phase30 probe support.
- HHMI/Whisper System support.
- Flexible visualization, filtering and sorting tools.
- Programmable triggering.
- Remote control via MATLAB.
- Powerful offline viewing and editing.
System Requirements
(What to Buy)
Requirements differ according to platform:
Important!: The enclustra drivers required for PXI do not work with AMD-based computers. The PXI-based imec hardware can only run on computers using Intel CPUs and chipsets.
Latest Application Downloads
SpikeGLX 3.0 (PXI, all probe types later than 3A):
News: SpikeGLX 3.0 replaces the 1.0 (3B2) and 2.0 versions. Those are now retired. The new version supports {1.0, 2.0, NHP, UHD} probes.
Important: To use SpikeGLX-phase30 you must first update your module firmware, which is included in the download. Please read the
README
file for instructions.
- Release 20201103-phase30...Readme : Fix firmware update dialog, Imec v3.31
Xilinx Kintex versions not covered by 3.0:
- Release 20190724-phase3B1...Readme : Minor bug fixes, Imec v5.1
- Release 20190724-phase3A...Readme : Minor bug fixes, Imec v4.3
Suggested organization: Create folder 'SpikeGLX' on your desktop or
C:\
then download/unzip associated stuff into it. It's fine to have several versions there as long as you run one at a time:
SpikeGLX\
Release_v20201103-phase30.zip
Release_v20200520-phase3B2.zip
Release_v20201103-phase30\
Release_v20200520-phase3B2\
Drivers\
Enclustra_Windows_10\
Tools\
Etc\
PXI Enclustra Drivers
These required driver files are not included in your SpikeGLX release.
- Click the link below for your Windows OS version.
- Unzip the folder into your local folder of SpikeGLX-related stuff.
- Follow the installation ReadMe in the download.
Terminology: 'Enclustra' is a company that markets other vendor's FPGAs along with development and support tools. There are several FPGAs used in the Neuropixels hardware, including a Xilinx Zynq model, often referred to as 'the enclustra'.
Important!: The enclustra drivers required for PXI do not work with AMD-based computers. The PXI-based imec hardware can only run on computers using Intel CPUs and chipsets.
Command-line Tool Installation
- CatGT
- TPrime
- C_Waves
These come as zip files. To install one:
- Extract the contained folder to any destination you like.
- Keep the folder contents together, as you do with the SpikeGLX folder.
- Read the contained
ReadMe.txt
for instructions. - Look at the
runit.bat
example batch script.
CatGT
CatGT is a command-line tool that does the following offline operations (all imec phases):
- Optionally join trials with given run_name and index ranges [ga,gb] [ta,tb]...
- ...Or run on any individual file.
- Optionally apply bandpass and global demux CAR filters.
- Optionally edit out saturation artifacts.
- Optionally extract tables of sync waveform edge times to drive TPrime.
- Optionally extract tables of any other TTL event times to be aligned with spikes.
- CatGT: Global Demuxed CAR
TPrime
TPrime is a command-line tool that maps event times (all imec phases):
- Map time from one SpikeGLX data stream to any other.
- Translate all events to a single common timeline.
- Uses sync edges to achieve 1 to 2 sample accuracy.
- Maps TTL events extracted using CatGT.
- Maps spike times from any sorter.
- Sync: Aligning with Edges.
Post-processing Tools
MATLAB and Python tools for parsing meta and binary datafiles (supports 3A, 3B1, 3B2, 20).
MATLAB tool that converts metadata to JRClust or Kilosort probe geometry data (supports 3A, 3B1, 3B2, 20).
Average cluster waveforms and statistics command-line tool. This can be run separately like CatGT or used with ecephys_spike_sorting.
Jennifer Colonell's version of the Allen Institute ecephys_spike_sorting pipeline. This Python script-driven pipeline chains together: CatGT, KS2, Noise Cluster Tagging, C_Waves, QC metrics, TPrime.
Interesting Map Files
- Tetrodes Bank Selection 3B (tetrodes covering banks zero and one)
- Long Column Bank Selection 3B (one column through banks zero and one)
Related help:
Metadata Guides
Descriptions of metafile items for each phase:
Questions or Problems?
1) For general How-To questions please consult the help documents and videos on this site, or pose your question to the Neuropixels slack channel so everyone can learn together.
2) If the community can't help, try asking me directly. I'm also happy to hear about new feature requests, and very eager to hear about suspected bugs. This is the best way to let me know there's a possible issue without causing alarm in the whole community. You can get my email from the About Box in the SpikeGLX application.
3) As a last resort you can register your observations of serious bugs/mistakes/errors using the SpikeGLX issue list on GitHub.
Help
- Neuropixels Support Page
- Noise: Learn How To Solder
- Sharpening Apparatus (MS.Word.docx)
- Installing NI Drivers
- SpikeGLX UserManual
- SpikeGLX FAQ
- CatGT: Global Demuxed CAR
- Sync: Aligning with Edges
- Parsing Data Files
- IMRO Table Anatomy
How-to Videos
Licensing
Use is subject to Janelia Research Campus Software Copyright 1.2 license terms: http://license.janelia.org/license.
QLed components are subject to GNU Library GPL v2.0 terms, which are described here: https://github.com/billkarsh/SpikeGLX/blob/master/QLed-LGPLv2-LICENSE.txt.
fin