maoyeh/pystim

A stimulus program for visual neuroscience experiments built on psychopy

What is it?

pyStim uses the Psychopy library to create visual stimuli for use in our visual neuroscience experiments. It includes a graphic user interface and is capable of running at a minimum of 60 frames/sec and with the Texas Instruments LightCrafter 4500 DLP is capable of running in excess of 180 Hz. pyStim is designed to communicate with exterinal I/O devices (currently Labjack U3), which we use to trigger the aquisition of recording amplifiers.

Latest Version

The latest version can be found in the master branch on GitHub. The dev branch is experimental, but will usually contain new features and be mostly functional.

Documentation

Documentation is available on github pages. The source of the documentation can be found in the code and in the /docs/source/ folder. Further documentation on Psychopy can be found on the Psychopy website.

Quick Install

pyStim is tested and works on Windows, though it should work on OSX/Linux (successfully builds on Travis).

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/SivyerLab/pystim.git

2. Install pipenv:

   pip install pipenv
   

3. Create the python environment for pystim and automatically install all the necessary packages:

   pipenv install --skip-lock
   

4. Run the GUI:

   pipenv run python pyStim/pyStimGUI.py
   

Optional libraries (see detailed install instructions):

• pycrafter4500 (for control of a lightcrafter 4500)
• tabulate (for formatting logs)
• igor (for parsing tables)
• labjackpython (see install guide for details)
• ffmpeg (for generating movies)
• avbin (for displaying movies)

Licensing

pyStim is licensed under GNU GPL v3.0. See LICENSE for license rights and limitations.

Screenshot