WinLTP

WinLTP is now freely available, and will continue so until May 1, 2009. The WinLTP Reanalysis program will probably always to be free.

Some of the support for WinLTP development has unfortunately decreased. The current plan is to make the WinLTP Basic Acquisition mode free (LTP Protocols with Stimulation/Acquisition Sweeps and Continuous Acquisition, but without Scripting or Capturing Spontaneous Events file saving), and sell the Advanced full mode at low cost (current estimate is £600, or approximately $1000, for 5 copies). Alternatively, we may sell the WinLTP Acquisition program including the Basic as well as the Advanced modes at the same low cost. This depends on future WinLTP support. In all probability, this will be the last time-locked version.

WinLTP is a stimulation, data acquisition and on-line analysis electrophysiological software for studying Long-Term Potentiation (LTP), Long-term Depression (LTD), and related phenomena. WinLTP is multitasking and simultaneously runs 1) LTP stimulus/acquisition/analyzing sweeps with protocol scripting, and 2) continuous acquisition saving Axon Binary Files (abf). WinLTP runs on Windows PCI bus computers and uses National Instruments PCI M-Series boards and Axon Instruments' Digidata 1320A and 1322A data acquisition boards.

Other software that can use the M-Series boards includes WaveMetrics' IGOR, National Instruments' LabView, John Dempster's Strathclyde Electrophysiology Suite (WinWCP and WinEDR), Silver lab's Nclamp, and Michael Pusch's GePulse.

The basic design philosophy behind WinLTP is to provide ever more complex stimulation protocols using Protocol Scripting, do sufficient online analysis to let you modify the experiment as it runs (such as changing baselines or protocol flow), do simultaneous continuous acquisition, (eventually) do simultaneous capture and analysis of spontaneous events, and use inexpensive but excellent data acquisition boards (National Instruments M-Series boards). WinLTP on/off-line analyses include basic analyses of synaptic potentials (Peak Amplitude, Latency, Slope, Area, Duration, Rise/Decay Time, Coastline, PopSpike Amplitude and Latency, Average Amplitude), and also Cell Resistance (Rm), and Patch Electrode Series Resistance (Rs). However, WinLTP is not designed to do every possible synaptic analysis, and instead is designed to work with other very good, and often inexpensive analysis programs. For example, additional synaptic event analyses such as synaptic exponential decay time can be done by separate analysis programs including Synaptosoft's MiniAnalysis and Christoph Schmidt-Hieber's StimFit32, and spontaneous synaptic events in continuous acquisition gap-free abf files can be analyzed by Bill Heitler's DataView, Synaptosoft's MiniAnalysis, Axograph Scientific's AxoGraph X and Molecular Device's ClampFit.

	1.	Multitasking
		a. Repeat sweep stimulation, acquisition and analysis
		b. Tape recorder (Continuous Acquisition of 2 AD channels down to 25 usec sample intervals, saved to a gap-free Axon Binary File)
	2.	Dynamic Protocol Scripting for writing complex protocols. No programming required for basic LTP Protocols.
	3.	Fast Repeat (LTD) Sweep Stimulation with no time between sweeps
	4.	On and off-line calculation and plotting of several waveform parameters: DC baseline, Peak Amplitude, Latency, Slope, Maximum Slope, Area, Duration, Rise Time, Decay Time, Coastline, PopSpike Amplitude, PopSpike Latency, Average Amplitude, Cell resistance (Rm), and Patch electrode series resistance (Rs)
	5.	Analyze all S0- and S1-evoked postsynaptic responses in a sweep
	6.	Special analyses of trains including: Analyze all peaks in a train relative to the baseline of the first pulse
	7.	Automatic blanking of stimulus artifacts to allow accurate determination of peaks and areas in a train
	8.	Measurement of Patch Electrode Series Resistance (Rs) using Rs peak, or Rs single or double exponential curve fitting

	1.	The WinLTP records synaptic activity in extracellular, intracellular or patch clamp modes
	2.	2 AD channel acquisition (down to 25 usec sample interval)
	3.	Two extracellular stimulation outputs (S0 and S1)
	4.	Two simultaneous patch-clamp recordings using two analog outputs
	5.	Analog stimulation including analog trains and ramps (loop within loop stimulation)
	6.	Repetitive sweeps with simultaneous data acquisition (up to 1,000,000 samples and 100 sec duration) and stimulation (using two extracellular pathway stimulation, S0 and/or S1, and epoch-like digital and intracellular analog stimulation)
	7.	Basic LTP Protocols are either slow single pathway S0 stimulation, or slow alternating dual pathway (S0 then S1) stimulation
	8.	The sweep data can be signal averaged and digitally filtered on-line and off-line
	9.	LTP induction can be produced by: Single train, repetitive train (theta burst stimulation), and primed burst stimulation
	10	LTD stimulation and analysis can be performed using fast repetitive single pulse sweeps (at up to 10 Hz), or several pulses in a sweep for faster repetitive stimulation
	11.	Patch sealtest protocol implemented
	12.	Save ADsweep Graph as a Windows Enhanced Metafile
	13.	Save your Spreadsheet/ AmpFile data to an Excel XLS file
	14.	Reanalyze straight ASCII files (skip header)
	15.	Automatic data folder creation at startup
	16.	WinLTP Reanalysis works on Macs with Intel processors
	17.	On-line acquisition runs in Windows XP and Vista (M-Series boards) and Windows 2000 and XP (Digidata 132x boards)

	1.	For Digidata 132x boards, a PCI bus computer or laptop computer (3 GHz or higher processor recommended)
		For M-Series boards, PCI bus computer with at least a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor (e.g. with hyperthreading, the faster the better, multi-core processors supported) (M-Series USB boards also supported)
	2.	For M-Series boards, Windows XP or Vista; for Digidata 132x boards, Windows 2000 or XP
	3.	2048 MB of memory recomended (512 MB minimum)
	4.	1280x1024 pixel monitor recommended (1024x768 minimum)
	5.	Data acquisition boards

		a.	Five extracellular stimulation outputs, S0 to S4
		b.	Extracellular stimulation with many sequential pulses and/or trains
		c.	Increment/Decrement of analog and digital stimulation values

	1.	User input log
	2.	Telegraphing inputs from PatchClamp amplifier to set gain

	4.	Five AD channels
	5.	Four simultaneous patch-clamp electrodes
	6.	Five Pulse (P0 to P4) and five Train (T0 to T4) Stimulation Sweeps (currently two, P0 and P1, and two, T0 and T1)
	7.	Detection and analysis of spontaneous events

		a.	Molecular Devices' Digidata 1320A or 1322A (Note: NI PCI boards work much better than Digidata boards)
		b.	National Instruments M-Series PCI boards (PCI-6221, PCI-6229, PCI-6251 or PCI-6259)