Getting Started

Symphony is a system for running electrophysiology experiments.

Starting Symphony

After installing all of the necessary pieces (see Installation) start up Symphony by navigating to the Symphony directory in MATLAB and running the StartSymphony.m script:

StartSymphony

If you run into problems be sure to look at Troubleshooting. Do not add Symphony or it's sub-folders to the MATLAB path.

Customizing Symphony

There are five main areas where Symphony can be customized: rig configurations, protocols, figure handlers, stimulus generators and the source hierarchy.

Rig configurations define how the components of a rig are connected. This includes the DAQ controller and all connected devices. See [Rig Configurations](Rig Configurations) for more information on creating your own.

Protocols define the series of stimuli that will be presented to the connected devices and which responses should be recorded. They can also present figure windows to display any results. See Protocols for more information on creating your own protocols.

Figure handlers are shared by protocols and graphically present any desired data, for example the response of a device from the most recent epoch or statistics gathered across all epochs run so far. See [Figure Handlers](Figure Handlers) for more information on using the existing handlers or creating your own.

Stimulus generators define the parameters and logic to generate stimuli for use in protocols. See [Stimulus Generators](Stimulus Generators) for more information on creating your own generators.

The source hierarchy defines the list of available experimental subjects and their hierarchical relationship. See [Saving Data](Saving Data) for more information on creating your own.

Configuring Symphony

Symphony configuration settings may be defined on a per-user basis. For example each user account may specify a different directory location for rig configurations, protocols, and figure handlers.

To override the default Symphony configuration settings, create a symphonyrc function with the following format:

function config = symphonyrc(config)
    % Place any user-specific settings here...
end

Save the file as symphonyrc.m and place it in your Matlab userpath.

You can use the default symphonyrc function as a guide. Only relevant settings need to be specified; undefined settings will continue to use the default setting.