BC

Behaving Cat Data Collection Program

 
Technical Report no. 16  		Ravi Kochhar 
Aug. 1992                               Department of Neurophysiology 
Rev. 1.06, May 1, 1996            	University of Wisconsin 
(rep016)                                Madison, Wi. 53706 


 
(1) INTRODUCTION	3 
(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	3 
(3) BASIC CONCEPTS	4 
(a)  Usage	4 
(4) STIMULUS PARAMETER FILE	5 
(a) Stimulus Specification Keywords	5 
(b) Data Collection Keywords	6 
(c) Sample Stimulus Parameter File	6 
(5) PROGRAMMING NOTES	8 
Common Event Flags	8 
Local Event Flags	8 
Data Collection Flowchart	10 
Co-Programs	11 


(1) INTRODUCTION 
 
 
 
     BC is a program that runs on the VAX/VMS computer. It is used for 
single unit data collection from a behaving cat using a paradigm developed 
by Tomlinson and Rhode. 
 

 
 
(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
     This work was done under the direction of Dr. W.S. Rhode, and also 
benefited from the comments of the many users of the Neurophysiology 
Auditory Laboratory. Support provided in part by Grant XXXXXXX from 
NIH. 


(3) BASIC CONCEPTS 
 
(a)  Usage 
 
 
    The program can be started in two ways : 
 
            (1) Type "$ BC" at the DCL prompt 
 
      or   (2) Type "XP BC" from within the DCP program. 
 

 


(4) STIMULUS PARAMETER FILE 
 
      The Stimuli to be presented during a particular "run" are specified in 
advance by the user in a Stimulus Paramter File (or SPF). The contents 
and format of the SPF are described below . 
 
      The SPF is an ASCII text file that can be created and examined by any 
standard text editor (e.g. EVE), and examined using a TYPE command or 
printed on the laser printer with the LASER command. It can have legal file 
name that the user determines. The file name extension can be anything 
the user wants, though .TXT is recommended. An example of a typical SPF 
is provided below in this section. 
 
      The first record in the SPF must be the characters "STIMF". This is 
used to distinguish an SPF from other files that may be mistakenly 
specified in its place. There should be nothing else in this record. 
 
      The second record onwards specifies the stimuli to be presented in the 
order in which they are to be presented. For example, if the second record 
specifies a Noise Rate Curve, and the third specifies a Response Area, 
then the Noise Rate Curve will be done before the Response Area. 
 
      All records in the SPF should begin a valid keyword followed by one or 
more parameters relating to that keyword. Any records that have an 
asterisk (*) in column one are treated as comments and ignored by the BC 
program. Records can be upto 132 characters each in length. Keywords 
may be specified in either upper or lower case characters. 
 
      The following is a list of currently supported keywords, with examples. 
All keywords have defaults associated with them, so if a particular keyword 
is not specified, then the default value is used. 
 
	(a) Stimulus Specification Keywords 
 
	DSS #		DSS number to be used. Default is 1. 
	DUR #		Stimulus Duration in millisecs. Default is 200. 
	REPINT #		Repetiton Interval in millisecs. Default is 1000. 
	NEPS #		Number of repetitons. Default is 2. 
	SPL  #  # 		SPL range (dB). Default is 20 to 70. 
	SPLINC  #		SPL increment (dB). Default is 10. 
	FREQ  #  #  	Frequency Range (Hz). Default is 500 to 5000. 
	FREQINC  #	Frequency Increment (Hz). Linear Steps. 
				Default is 250. 
	FMOD  #  #		Modulation Frequency Range (Hz). 
				Default is 50 to 1050. 
	FMODINC #		FMOD increment (Hz). Default is 100. 
	DMOD #		Modulation Depth (0 to 1). Default is 1. 
  	FCARR # 		Carrier Frequency for AM (def=4000 Hz) 
	GWFILE @@..@	General Waveform file name (def=GW.DAT) 
	GWID @@..@	General Waveform ID (def=N50K) 
 
	(b) Data Collection Keywords 
 
	RA			Begin Response Area data collection 
				(i.e. vary Frequency and SPL) 
	NOISE		Begin Noise Burst data collection (vary SPL) 
	AM			Begin Amplitude Modulation data collection 
				(vary FMOD) 
	MASK		Begin Masked Tone data collection (vary FREQ) 
 
	(c) Sample Stimulus Parameter File 
 
      The following are the contents of an example SPF, illustrating some of 
the keywords described above. 
 
	STIMF 
	* Set up parameters that are pretty much common 
	DUR 250 
	FREQ  2500 10000 
	FREQINC  100 
	SPL  0  70 
	* Start with a Response Area 
	RA 
	* Now do a Noise series at a fixed SPL of 50 dB, Bandwidth 10KHz 
	SPL  50  50 
	BANDW 10000 
	NOISE 
	* Next an AM series where FMOD is varied, SPL fixed at 50 dB 
	FMOD  50  750 
	FMODINC  100 
	AM 

 

(5) PROGRAMMING NOTES 
 
Common Event Flags 
 
	EFN			Description 
 
	91			Sync. between BC and BCUET 
	92			BC and BCDIS 
	93			BCUET and BCDIS 
	94			BC and BCIC 
	95			BC and BCLVR (if = 1 then BCLVR quits) 
	96			BC and BCLIT 
	97			BC and BCLVR 
	98			Set to indicate Lever pressed , Clear to indicate 
				Lever in "release" position (BCLVR and BC) 
	99			Set to indicate cat feeding complete (BCLIT & BC) 
	81			BC and DCP 
 
Local Event Flags 
 
(a) Program BC: 
 
	EFN			Description 
 
	11			Used to test System timer status (BC) 
  	12			Used to test system timer status during fast tones 
	13			Used to test timer status while Cue lights ON 
	14			Used to test timer status in routine WAITC 
	15			Used to test timer status to get min of 3 fast tones 
 
(b) Program BCLIT: 
 
	EFN			Description 
 
	11			Used to time feeder (BCLIT) 
	12			Used to time feeder extender (BCLIT) 
 
 


Logical Unit Numbers 
 
	LUN			Description 
	1			Data File (EDF) 
	2			Parameter Storage File (PSF) 
	3			Calibration Storage File (CSF) 
	4			Status Table File (STBF) 
	5			Keyboard Input 
	6			Screen Output 
	7			Mailbox MAIL_BCUET 
	8			Mailbox MAIL_BCDIS 
	9			Mailbox MAIL_BCIC 
	10			Mailbox MAIL_BCIC2 
	11			Mailbox MAIL_BCLVR 
	12			Mailbox MAIL_BCLIT 
	13			Error message file 
	14			Mailbox MAIL_DCPBC 
	15			Mailbox MAIL_BCUET2 
	16			Stimulus Parameter File (SPF) 
	17			Cat Parameter File (CPF) 
	18			GW file 
 
Program BCUET 
	LUN			Description 
	7			Mailbox MAIL_BCUET 
 
Program BCDIS 
	LUN			Description 
	3			Mailbox MAIL_BCDIS 
 

 

 
Data Collection Flowchart 
(Provided by Ward Tomlinson) 

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Co-Programs 
 
	The programs BCUET, BCDIS, BCIC, BCLVR and BCLIT run in 
parallel with BC, and perform functions such as data collection from the 
UET (BCUET), display results on the screen (BCDIS), accept commands 
from the keyboard (BCIC), monitor the cat lever position (BCLVR) and 
control the lights and cat feeder (BCLIT). 
 
	The figure below is an overview of the different co-programs and 
their interaction. 

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