CSCFileRateReducer.

exe Manual

Introduction

CSCFileRateReducer.exe is a free, stand-alone executable program distributed by Neuralynx
that downsamples (i.e., extracts a subset of samples from) continuously-sampled channel files.
Typically these files store local field potential data, and have an .ncs file name extension.

CSC data is usually recorded at extremely high sampling rates, e.g. 30 kHz. So, reading files of
data sampled at these high rates can quickly exhaust the memory of Matlab. Fortunately, LFP
data is usually recorded with filters having rather low pass cutoff frequencies, e.g. 300 Hz. In
this situation, we can safely downsample the data to a much lower frequency, thus reducing the
file size and the memory required to read the data.

The new sampling rate is determined by setting the Sc Divisor. The sampling rate of the new
file is obtained by dividing the sampling rate of the original recording file by the Sc Divisor. The
program creates the new file by copying only every N-th sample from the original file, where N =
Sc Divisor. The value of the Sc Divisor must be selected carefully. The default value when you
launch the program is 2; this is almost never a good choice. A good expression to use as a rule
of thumb is:

Sc Divisor < Old Sampling rate / ( 2 * filter cutoff frequency ).

If the Sc Divisor exceeds this value, aliasing will cause high-frequency signals passed by the
filter to leak into lower frequency bands. Its better to have smaller Sc Divisor (i.e. a slightly
larger new file) than run the risk of aliasing. So, to be conservative, your Sc Divisor should be
rounded down.

Getting Started

A zip file containing the program can be downloaded from:

http://www.neuralynx.com/static/software/CscFileRateReducer_v102.zip

When you launch the program, Windows might issue a security warning. It is safe to ignore this
and proceed running the program.


Using CSCFileRateReducer

Heres how the program window looks:



Click on the Select Input Files button to invoke Open File dialog shown below:


Use the Look in: pulldown in this dialog to browse for the folder containing the CSC files you
want to downsample.

Often a recording session folder will contain a mixture of CSC files containing LFP data, and
empty CSC files that contain no data. The CSCFileRateReducer should only be applied to the
files that contain valid LFP data. Heres how to select the correct files and exclude the empty
ones.

In the Open File dialog, click on the View Menu button. This will invoke a popup menu of items
that allow you to select how to view the files in the dialog window.

From the View Menu popup, select Details. The dialog window should now show the file sizes


By default, the details veiw sorts files alphabetically by name. Some valid files may not appear
at the top of the list. To sort the list in descending order by file size, click on the Size tab two
times.

Click and drag to select all the valid files (i.e. with size greater than 16 KB).


Click the Open button to return to the original dialog, which will now list the files you have
selected


Now click and edit the value for the Sc Divisor as described in Introduction.

Click Process File to begin downsampling.

When downsampling is complete, the folder will contain several new CSC files having the same
name as the originals, now including the suffix RateReduced.

Check file sizes of new CSC files to verify that you used the correct Sc Divisor value.

Working with multiple sessions



You can use the Look in: pulldown in this dialog to browse for folders, but this can be tedious.
One convenient trick is to use Windows Explorer to browse for folders:


Select and copy the desired folder location from the Address field (as shown)
Switch back to CSCFileRateReducer Open File dialog and paste the folder location into the File
Name: field. This will cause dialog to automatically switch to the desired folder and display all
the CSC files therein.




-DSPHighCutFrequency
-AmpHiCut