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Functional assessment of in vitro neuronal networks—of relevance for disease modelling and drug testing—can be performed using multi-electrode array (MEA) technology. However, the handling and processing of the large amount of data typically generated in MEA experiments remains a huge hurdle for researchers. Various software packages have been developed to tackle this issue, but to date, most are either not accessible through the links provided by the authors or only tackle parts of the analysis. Here, we present ‘‘MEA-ToolBox’’, a free open-source general MEA analytical toolbox that uses a variety of literature-based algorithms to process the data, detect spikes from raw recordings, and extract information at both the single-channel and array-wide network level. MEA-ToolBox extracts information about spike trains, burst-related analysis and connectivity metrics without the need of manual intervention. MEA-ToolBox is tailored for comparing different sets of measurements and will analyze data from multiple recorded files placed in the same folder sequentially, thus considerably streamlining the analysis pipeline. MEA-ToolBox is available with a graphic user interface (GUI) thus eliminating the need for any coding expertise while offering functionality to inspect, explore and post-process the data. As proof-of-concept, MEA-ToolBox was tested on earlier-published MEA recordings from neuronal networks derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) obtained from healthy subjects and patients with neurodevelopmental disorders. Neuronal networks derived from patient’s hiPSCs showed a clear phenotype compared to those from healthy subjects, demonstrating that the toolbox could extract useful parameters and assess differences between normal and diseased profiles.

We have shown previously that MCT are hydrolysed and absorbed from the stomach of suckling rats. We now report evidence that MCT are absorbed from the stomach of infants. Three groups of infants were chosen: 5 suffering from pyloric stenosis (P.S.), 7 from prematurity and 5 from miscellaneous problems. Infants with P.S. were chosen because of the delayed gastric emptying inherent to this condition so that the more rapid disappearance of MCT as compared to LCT must be due to absorption rather than to possibly more rapid gastric emptying of MCT. To each infant 10 ml/kg of formula were administered by gastric tube. Prematures received Enfalac (50% of fat as MCT) while the other groups received Pregestimil (40% MCT) (Mead-Johnson Co, Evansville, 111). Aliquots of 3 ml. were removed at 0, 20, 40 and 60 minutes. We found that in the P.S. group 35% of Total MCT were absorbed in the first hour. Corresponding figures for the prematures and the miscellaneous groups were 22.8% and 58.5% respecticely.C8 was absorbed more rapidly than C10. These results show that MCT are absorbed from the gastric mucosa of infants. In view of the presence of MCT in breast milk and in infant formulas, this may be of physiological importance.