Rigbox: An open-source toolbox for probing neurons and behavior

Abstract

Setting up an experiment in behavioral neuroscience is a complex process that is often managed with ad hoc solutions. To streamline this process, we developed Rigbox, a high-performance, open-source software toolbox that facilitates a modular approach to designing experiments (https://github.com/cortex-lab/Rigbox). Rigbox simplifies hardware input-output, time aligns datastreams from multiple sources, communicates with remote databases, and implements visual and auditory stimuli presentation. Its main submodule, Signals, al-lows intuitive programming of behavioral tasks. Here we illustrate its function with the following two interactive examples: a human psychophysics experiment, and the game of Pong. We give an overview of running experiments in Rigbox, provide benchmarks, and conclude with a discussion on the extensibility of the software and comparisons with similar toolboxes. Rigbox runs in MATLAB, with Java components to handle network com-munication, and a C library to boost performance.