Automated detection and analysis of neuronal persistent activity

Cortical neurons receive individual as well as synchronized synaptic events. The latter may drive a neuron into an active state where a persistently depolarized membrane potential lasts for several seconds. Visual inspection and manual detection of these persistent events is labor-intensive. We built a set of scripts in MATLAB with the goal of having a core software package for the systematic and objective detection of persistent neural activity out of large time-series data. This analysis software includes multiple steps, from a pre-processing stage, event detection, user-interactive detection reviewing, and filtering/graphing. Analysis scripts and brief usage information are freely available upon request.

► Visual inspection and manual detection of specific types of neural activity from large time-series data is labor-intensive.
► We built a set of scripts in MATLAB to overcome this difficulty.
► This analysis software also includes graphing function and is user-interactive.
► Scripts and brief usage information are freely available upon request.