Partnership with Lafayette Instrument
Plexon’s newsletter from February 26, 2014 discusses Plexon’s partnership with Lafayette Instrument as well as JoVE.
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February 26, 2014 | |
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We are thrilled to announce the official publishing last Friday of the winning article from the first Plexon/JoVE Publication Grant Contest. The winning publication-complete with a methods video-titled “Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze” is available online via Open Access at http://www.jove.com/video/51316/automated-visual-cognitive-tasks-for-recording-neural-activity-using.
Plexon and the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) partnered early last year to sponsor this first Publication Grant Contest. Researchers from around the world were invited to submit abstracts for unpublished, original work in which Plexon’s flagship OmniPlex® Neural Data Acquisition System was used to perform neural recording during the experiment.
Congratulations once again to Jonathan W. Ho from Rebecca D. Burwell’s Behavioral Neuroscience of Memory and Attention Lab at Brown University as the first contest winner. Not only did their work require the use of Plexon’s OmniPlex System, but they also relied on Plexon’s CinePlex® Behavioral Research System as well. Mr. Ho’s team included Tara K. Jacobson, Clayton P. Aldern, Amanda L. Liu and Rebecca D. Burwell.
We hope that you will find the publication of real interest and the methods detailed in the video truly helpful. More details regarding the contest, the winning team and the abstract can be found in the recent news release.
Early Registration for Workshop ends This FridayWorkshop dates: March 17-20, 2014 The 2014 Plexon Neurophysiology and Behavior Workshop marks the fifth year of this amazing event when researchers from all over the globe descend on Dallas for three full days packed with instructions, demonstration and hands-on exercises presented by renowned researchers and Plexon subject matter experts. Each year, the event becomes stronger with last year earning a new high score of 9.4 out of 10. For more information, email workshop@plexon.com. Plexon and Lafayette PartnershipWhile Plexon is most known for its sophisticated, yet easy-to-use data acquisition systems, optogenetics equipment and video recording and analysis product lines, Lafayette Instrument Company is a recognized leader in state-of-the-art testing apparatus and operant chambers. Together, elegant approaches to simultaneously performing neural recording, optogenetic stimulation, video tracking and trial/task facilitation become possible in a highly efficient environment. The first integrated product offering will consist of the Bussey-Saksida Touch Screen Operant Chamber System with the OmniPlex Neural Data Acquisition System. The combination will offer a unique environment in which scientists can run a variety of operant tasks, animal learning time is dramatically reduced, and high resolution neural recording is synchronized with a shared timing clock. The offering will be available in a rat or mouse-specific configurations. Future product offerings will include the Bussey-Saksida Touch Screen Operant Chamber System integrated with any combination of the following systems: OmniPlex Neural Data Acquisition System, CinePlex Behavior Research System for digital video recording, tracking and behavior analysis, and the PlexBright™ Optogenetic Stimulation System. The first integrated products will be available shortly. Interested parties should reach out to either company at info@plexon.com or matt@lafayetteinstrument.com for more information. Did you know . . .In addition to the hardware referencing feature of Plexon headstages and ampflifiers, the OmniPlex Software starting with version 1.10 offers three digital methods of referencing. These can be applied to either the Spike Continuous source (SPKC), the Field Potential source (FP) or both as they are separate sources. The first method provides selection of a specific channel to use as a reference (subtraction) from a selected set of other channels. The other two methods combine a selection of multiple channels to form a composite signal which is then subtracted at each sample time from the set. Common Average Referencing (CAR) averages the value of samples across the channels and then subtracts that from the set. Common Median Referencing (CMR) computes the median value across samples and subtracts that from the set. In many cases CMR is more robust in the presence outlier samples and produces a better reference signal. Please refer to the section on Digital Referencing in the OmniPlex version 1.10 Release Notes for more details. A discussion of these techniques can be found in 1) “Common median referencing for improved action potential detection with multielectrode arrays.” In Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE, pp. 1604-1607. IEEE, 2009, and 2) “Using a common average reference to improve cortical neuron recordings from microelectrode arrays.” Journal of Neurophysiology 101, no. 3 (2009): 1679. Research SpotlightLet us know about your 2014 publication citing Plexon and our equipment and we will send you a thank you award with a mug and a T-shirt! Send notices, address and T-shirt size to publications@plexon.com. All articles listed are alphabetical based on first author within two categories: articles published online in electronic-only journals or ahead of print, and articles published in full print. Recent articles published online in electronic-only journals or ahead of print:
Recent articles published in full print:
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PlexBright LD-1 Single Channel Driver User GuideFor users of the PlexBright LD-1 Single Channel Driver, you will appreciate the most recent version of the User Guide now available online on the product page resources tab or the Documentation page under the PlexBright System. New Links to Hot Topics on HomepageThe Plexon website homepage has been modified to now highlight the most important news to researchers- such as new software releases, product launches, deadlines, and similar. Check out our new scrolling Recent News panel. NEW PlexBright Quote Request FormsNew PlexBright Quote Request Forms specific to your research scenario: • Freely Behaving Rat and Larger Animals They can be completed electronically and sent to either orders@plexon.com or faxed to +1 (214) 369-1775. A quote will be sent to you shortly thereafter. Forms are located on the Resources tab for any PlexBright product webpage, or on the Documentation page under the PlexBright System. Upcoming Events• Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) 2014, February 27 – March 2; Salt Lake City, UT, USA |