HEKA Patchmaster Importer

Matlab class to import HEKA Patchmaster files

HEKA Patchmaster Importer

Class to import HEKA Patchmaster files into Matlab.
The core functionality is based on the HEKA importer from sigTool (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.10.042 and https://github.com/irondukepublishing/sigTOOL) with modifications from Sammy Katta (https://github.com/sammykatta/Matlab-PatchMaster).

This stand-alone importer works independent of sigTool and will additionally extract the stimulus (reconstructed from the pgf) and solutions (when solution base was active during recording).

The recordings will be sorted into a table together with various parameters e.g series resistance (Rs), cell membrane capacitance (Cm), holding potential (Vhold), stimulus and solutions.
Note: Currently, not all possible stimuli are supported. If your stimulus contains ramps or alternating segments, it won't be reconstructed properly. However, it should work fine for most stimuli and support for new stimuli will be added in the future.

## How to use:

Add the folder "@HEKA_Importer" containing all the corresponding files to your Matlab directory.

**Input:**
- full file path and name of HEKA Patchmaster file that is to be loaded, e.g.
to load HEKA Patchmaster file "MyData.dat" located in "C:\PatchClamp\" run `HEKA_Importer('C:\PatchClamp\MyData.dat')`.

*Alternative:* run `HEKA_Importer.GUI` which will open the file dialog box from which the Patchmaster file can be selected.

**Output:**

Heka_Importer creates object containing the following properties:

- **trees**: structure containing the dataTree (from the .pul file), the stimTree (from the .pgf file) and solTree (from the .sol file). These tree structures are how HEKA saves the metadata for different recordings. For details on the HEKA file format check ftp://server.hekahome.de/pub/FileFormat/Patchmasterv9/ and ftp://server.hekahome.de/pub/FileFormat/Patchmasterv1000/.

- **opt**: structure containing different options when loading the file, currently it only contains the filepath of the HEKA Patchmaster file which was loaded and serves as placeholder for additional options in the future.

- **RecTable**: Matlab table containing the recordings and several parameters associated with them. Each row represents a different recording. The recorded data are stored in `RecTable.dataRaw` and sorted by channel within, e.g. `RecTable.dataRaw{1}{2}` contains all sweeps of the first series/recording for the second channel. The corresponding name of the channels is stored in `RecTable.chNames{1}`.
Accordingly, the cell capacitance for each sweep of this recording is stored in RecTable.Cm{1}{2}. Note that this is slightly different from how Patchmaster stores the data internally. In Patchmaster, the data tree is nested by Series > Sweep > Channel, whereas the data table in Matlab will be sorted as Series > Channel > Sweep.

- **solutions**: Matlab table containing the solutions and composition (chemicals & concentration) used during the experiments. This table is read-out from the solTree of the HEKA Patchmaster file and requires that the recordings were associated with a solution base (otherwise this variable will be empty). The names of solutions correspond to the columns "ExternalSolution" and "InternalSolution" of the RecTable.

UPDATE: As of Patchmaster version 2x90.3 (including Patchmaster Next), HEKA made minor changes to how data is stored in the tree structures. The amplifier settings are now always stored in a separate ".amp" file (which is part of the DAT bundle file). In previous versions, such a separate file was created only for EPC/n amplifiers. The HEKA_Import function has been updated accordingly and should work with older 2x90 versions and newer (>2x90.3/PMN) alike, but the amplifier settings might be stored differently.