The open toolbox for behavioral research

In this work, we describe a new open-source MATLAB toolbox for the control of behavioral experiments. The toolbox caters to very different types of experiments in different species, and with different underlying hardware. Typical examples are operant chambers in animals, with or without neurophysiology, behavioral experiments in human subjects, and neurophysiological recordings in humans such as EEG and fMRI. In addition, the toolbox supports communication via Ethernet to either control and monitor one or several experimental setups remotely or to implement distributed paradigms across different computers. This flexibility is possible, since the toolbox supports a wide range of hardware, some of which is custom developments. An example is a fast network-based digital-IO device for the communication with experimental hardware such as feeders or triggers in neurophysiological setups. We also included functions for online video analysis allowing paradigms to be contingent on responses to a screen, the head movement of a bird in an operant chamber, or the physical location of an animal in an open arena. While the toolbox is well tested and many components of it have been in use for many years, we do not see it as a finished product but rather a continuing development with a focus on easy extendibility and customization.