Pulse Format

The Pulse program from HEKA elektronik is intended for stimulated acquisition of electrophysiological data. A single data set recorded using Pulse is stored as separate files, each with the same name but a different extension, as shown in the table:

Extension	Contents
ana	analysis
dat	acquired data
pgf	stimuli
pul	control information
sol	solutions

The filter requires that the pul, pgf, and dat files be present to read the data from a Pulse data set. The filter does not use the ana file, but will use the sol file if present.

The filter reads data sets produced by Pulse version 7 or later. If the filter cannot read your Pulse files, they may have been written by a newer version of Pulse. Check the Bruxton Web site to determine if an update is required.

Hierarchy: Groups/Series/Sweeps

A Pulse file is structured hierarchically into groups, series, and sweeps. A file consists of a sequence of groups, a group consists of a sequence of series, and a series consists of a sequence of sweeps.

A series is a sequence of recorded sweeps, based on the same stimulus template. A stimulus template specifies a stimulus waveform, and describes how this waveform varies from sweep to sweep within the series.

A sweep is a single continuous recording.

Stimuli: Segments

A stimulus template for a series is specified as a sequence of segments. For example, one segment might specify an amplitude of -80mV, while the next segment might specify an amplitude of -20mV.

A segment might specify that the segment amplitude varies from sweep to sweep within a series. For example, a segment might have a base amplitude of -80mV, and the amplitude might change by +10mV each sweep. For the first sweep, the segment amplitude would be -80mV, for the next one -70mV, and so on.

Channels

Pulse can record data from more than one channel. Pulse is limited to no more than two acquired channels. The number of channels recorded may vary from sweep to sweep. Each sweep contains data for each channel acquired.

Note that Pulse itself always records the same number of channels in each sweep in a series, a Pulse data set can be edited to remove channels of data on individual sweeps.

Solutions

Pulse stores an optional solution database file with each dataset. This solution database contains a numbered collection of solutions. Each solution contains a collection of chemicals, specifying its composition.