Josh and I (of Open Ephys), Greg Hale (of Arte) and Jon Newman (of Neurorighter, Cyclops & Puggle) just published an opinion piece on the role of open-source approaches and interfaces for large-scale electrophysiology.
Its a bit of a review of the history of some open-source/lab-developed ephys systems and how they built on each other, and presents an argument for why we need open interfaces between all components of tools in order to efficiently carry out increasingly complex experiments involving large scale recordings, near real-time analysis and closed-loop feedback.
One key point is that there will pretty much always be some mixing of proprietary and open-source system components, and that the two shouldn’t just be seen as alternative choices. Instead, we argue that open standards and interfaces are needed to improve scientific productivity, transparency and quality, while making sure that expertise and development work can be shared freely between academic researchers and industry.
Siegle JH, Hale GJ, Newman JP, Voigts J
Neural ensemble communities: open-source approaches to hardware for large-scale electrophysiology. 2015, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 32, 53-59
[@Curr. Op. Neurobio]
