Month: August 2008

Yesterday morning, while walking the never-ending halls of the UW health sciences building, I fixated on an approaching figure dressed in scrubs. A few steps closer I made out long hair and curves. Trying to appear indifferent while I squinted to make out her face, she suddenly turned and said “uh, hey Ryan..!”. Nothing like getting caught checking out a girl you already know. “Oh, uh, hi Brittney” I replied, embarrassed. Things will be awkward with her from now on. Quickly rounding the corner I spotted another, possibly female, figure sporting a wind-breaker, jeans and “tenni-runners”. Again I squinted but couldn’t quite make out the face. “Wow, they actually let you out of the lab!” she says to me as we pass. If it wasn’t for her Australian accent, I think I would still be wondering who that was.

What can you spot in abundance both in Wallingford and SeaTac Airport?

Boss asks: “When can we have a look at your cortical recordings!?!”
I reply: “When I can separate spikes from wonky sub-cortical stimulation artifacts.”
Boss retorts: “Isn’t there software for that?”
“Yes.”
“Then what’s the problem?”

Here’s the problem: Open source spike-sorting routines are not really free.
I’ve spent the past week trying to execute open-source spike-sorting routines I’ve downloaded. The parent routines are indeed free, and would simplify my analysis greatly, however they employ functions of expensive commercial software (i.e. MATLAB signal processing and wavelet toolboxes) in order to run. Unless hundreds are forked out for the underlying subroutines, I’m shit out of luck. Try explaining this to someone who last programmed in 1985.

So I’m starting from scratch. Nothing like re-inventing the wheel.