Some wrote C/C++ programs to read in and process their data files, but over time everyone in the lab began to turn to the Matlab application suite for all their data analysis needs. While XWork was sufficient for certain needs, most researchers needed to perform their own unique analyses, often after initially processing the data files in XWork. XWork stored user edits like saccade cuts and spike-sorting results in separate action records appended to the data file, thus preserving the raw data in its original form while providing a means of automatically regenerating the edit actions when the file was again loaded by the program. This program could read in Cntrlx-generated data files, display the recorded data in a trace window, and perform a number of different tasks, such as: spike sorting of the 50KHz electrode trace recorded by spikesPC cut saccades from eye velocity traces and construct post-stimulus time histograms (PSTH) across repeated presentations of a given trial. Over the years the Lisberger laboratory has developed a number of analysis tools that can read Maestro's data files and can perform certain basic analytical tasks that most researchers will frequently use.īefore the release of Maestro 1.0, the workhorse analysis program in the lab was the UNIX-based XWork. To import the data files into any other custom or off-the-shelf data analysis application requires a detailed understanding of the native file format and a significant coding effort. Of course, although a binary file format combined with compression techniques helps to reduce the size of the data file, it can induce headaches when it is time to retrieve and analyze the experimental data that was recorded.

The file's format has been augmented many times as Maestro has evolved, but always in a way that avoided 'breaking' existing analysis code. Information about the experiment (trial, stimulus run, other settings) is included in the file so that analysis programs can identify what protocol was presented when the data was collected, reproduce the trajectories of targets animated during a trial, determine whether or not the subject successfully performed a task, and so on. Analog data are compressed to reduce file size. The data recorded by Maestro during an experiment is saved in a custom-formatted binary data file.

Maestro data