Amaducci Rodrigo, Reyes-Sanchez Manuel, Elices Irene, Rodriguez Francisco B, Varona Pablo
Grupo de Neurocomputación Biológica, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Front Neuroinform. 2019 Mar 12;13:11. doi: 10.3389/fninf.2019.00011. eCollection 2019.
Closed-loop technologies provide novel ways of online observation, control and bidirectional interaction with the nervous system, which help to study complex non-linear and partially observable neural dynamics. These protocols are often difficult to implement due to the temporal precision required when interacting with biological components, which in many cases can only be achieved using real-time technology. In this paper we introduce RTHybrid (www.github.com/GNB-UAM/RTHybrid), a free and open-source software that includes a neuron and synapse model library to build hybrid circuits with living neurons in a wide variety of experimental contexts. In an effort to encourage the standardization of real-time software technology in neuroscience research, we compared different open-source real-time operating system patches, RTAI, Xenomai 3 and Preempt-RT, according to their performance and usability. RTHybrid has been developed to run over Linux operating systems supporting both Xenomai 3 and Preempt-RT real-time patches, and thus allowing an easy implementation in any laboratory. We report a set of validation tests and latency benchmarks for the construction of hybrid circuits using this library. With this work we want to promote the dissemination of standardized, user-friendly and open-source software tools developed for open- and closed-loop experimental neuroscience.
闭环技术提供了在线观察、控制以及与神经系统进行双向交互的新方法，有助于研究复杂的非线性和部分可观测的神经动力学。由于与生物组件交互时需要时间精度，而在许多情况下这只能通过实时技术来实现，所以这些协议往往难以实施。在本文中，我们介绍了RTHybrid（www.github.com/GNB-UAM/RTHybrid），这是一款免费的开源软件，它包含一个神经元和突触模型库，可在各种实验环境中与活神经元构建混合电路。为了鼓励神经科学研究中实时软件技术的标准化，我们根据不同开源实时操作系统补丁RTAI、Xenomai 3和Preempt-RT的性能和可用性进行了比较。RTHybrid已开发为可在支持Xenomai 3和Preempt-RT实时补丁的Linux操作系统上运行，从而便于在任何实验室中实施。我们报告了一组使用该库构建混合电路的验证测试和延迟基准。通过这项工作，我们希望促进为开环和闭环实验神经科学开发的标准化、用户友好型开源软件工具的传播。
