Getting started

Installation: To get started with ANSLAB download a recent ANSLAB zip-archive and extract the archive to a location of your choice. Make sure that the original folder structure is preserved. The resulting ANSLAB-folder has the following subfolder structure. For full functionality, all folders need to exist and be included in the Matlab path.

All ANSLAB functions are now available and you can start with the data analysis. Type ANSLAB to start a launchpad for all major submodules.

Each submodule can also be called by typing its name in the command window and pressing return (names consisting of only lower case characters will be recognized). The most important functions are the following:

ANSLABecg for ECG analysis, including interbeat interval (IBI), T-wave amplitude, Q-point detection, etc.

ANSLABcal and  ANSLABspi for fixed volume bag and spirometer respiration calibration.

ANSLABresp for analysis of respiration plethysmography data. Requires ANSLABcal or ANSLABspi to be run beforehand.

ANSLABeda  for analysis of electrodermal activity.

ANSLABemg for analysis of tonic muscle activity

ANSLABstl for reflexive startle data anylsis.

ANSLABrat to analyze continuous voltage-coded rating data.

ANSLABacc to analyze accelerometer data.

ANSLABppg to analyze pulse plethysmography data.

ANSLABco to analyze capnography data.

ANSLABtmp to analyze body temperature data.

ANSLABbp to analyze continuous arterial pressure.

ANSLABhelp to open ANSLAB help-files in the help browser.

User interface: Many of ANSLAB's general programs interact with the user via the command prompt. You are given a list of actions that you can choose by entering the corresponding number and pressing return. Data editing functions however work with graphical input on the figures displaying the data (based on the ginput-function). Therefore, when manipulating data, excluding outliers, interpolating, adding/deleting events, etc., the data figure must be active and the mouse pointer must be over the active figure.  This is also true for keyboard-options  that use the same ('ginput') response input mode.

The default appearance of the ginput-function in Matlab is the display of a crosshair starting from the edges of the figure. If you prefer to display only a small crosshair, you can change the corresponding line in the 'ginput.m'-file (type 'edit ginput' in the command window) from   >> set(gcf,'pointer','fullcrosshair'); << to  >> set(gcf,'pointer','crosshair'); <<.

Data preparation: Preparing your data for analysis with ANSLAB involves the following steps:

1. Data format: Save data in tab-separated plain text format, with sample points as rows and channels as columns. Do not include channel labels, and make sure that the correct number of channels (columns) is included in each file. Usually this is only the one channel of interest for a specific type of analysis. Sometimes however, e.g. for respiration or for startle data, multiple channels are required and they need to be listed as shown in the table below:

Data can be listed at an arbitrary sampling rate (sufficient to avoid data loss) because all ANSLAB functions will resample the data to whatever rate they need.
However, resampling is fastest for channels recorded at parts or multiples of 400 Hz or 1000 Hz (e.g., 10 Hz, 25 Hz, 100 Hz, 400 Hz, 800 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz).

2. Data folder: Copy the  'EmptyStudyFolder' from the ANSLABUtil-folder to a location of your choice and rename it to a 3 character study identifier (for instance 'tex' for 'test experiment' as in the ANSLABTestData-folder). This will be your working folder and it's name will identify the study.  It is not recommended to use numbers in this identifier (e.g., ab1) since reduced data file names will have many numbers specifying subject and data file following this identifier, and reading these correctly can then be confusing.  Rename the file 'xxxc.m'  inside the study folder according to your 3 character study name (for instance 'texc.m').  It will store the respiration calibration coefficients from the respiration calibration analysis for all subjects.  It has 5 columns: subject number, thoracic band multiplier, abdominal band multiplier, thoracic multiplier if the abdominal signal is missing, and abdominal multiplier if the thoracic signal is missing.

3. File naming: Raw data to be analyzed needs to be copied into this study folder. Many files containing the 3-character study name as unique identifier will automatically be created by ANSLAB programs and stored in the subfolders of the study folder. Raw data files should be renamed using the 3-character study name (e.g. 'tex')  followed by a 3 digit subject number and a 2 digit session number (for instance 'tex00101.txt'). You can append any string you like after the session number ( tex00101ecglead1.txt ) but you should keep the former parts, because all the programs use them for saving and naming files with the reduced data.

The following table provides the meaning of the study subfolders storing your analysis results. Note that not all studies record all channels, so some folders will remain empty.

Acknowledgements: Parts of this help function were created with the kind help of Iris Mauss, PhD. Thanks!