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Seaborn

Statistical data visualization library built on Matplotlib

Interactive Visualization & Exploration Intermediate Visualization
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Quick Info
  • Category: Interactive Visualization & Exploration
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Type: Visualization
  • Requires:

Why We Recommend Seaborn

Seaborn makes it easy to create beautiful, informative statistical graphics with minimal code. It provides high-level functions for common statistical plots and works seamlessly with Pandas DataFrames, making exploratory analysis faster and more intuitive than raw Matplotlib.

Common Use Cases

  • Visualize distributions and statistical relationships
  • Create publication-ready figures with minimal code
  • Explore correlations and patterns in experimental data
  • Generate complex multi-panel figures easily

Getting Started

Seaborn is a Python visualization library based on Matplotlib that provides a high-level interface for drawing attractive and informative statistical graphics. It’s designed to work well with Pandas DataFrames and makes complex plots simple.

Why Seaborn?

  • Beautiful Defaults: Professional-looking plots out of the box
  • Statistical Focus: Built-in support for statistical visualizations
  • DataFrame Integration: Works naturally with Pandas
  • Less Code: Complex plots with simple function calls
  • Themes: Consistent, attractive styling

Key Plot Types

Distribution Plots

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd

# Histogram with KDE
sns.histplot(data=df, x='reaction_time', kde=True)

# Box and violin plots
sns.boxplot(data=df, x='condition', y='reaction_time')
sns.violinplot(data=df, x='condition', y='reaction_time')

Relationship Plots

# Scatter with regression line
sns.regplot(data=df, x='age', y='performance')

# Scatter matrix
sns.pairplot(data=df, hue='group')

# Correlation heatmap
corr = df.corr()
sns.heatmap(corr, annot=True, cmap='coolwarm')

Categorical Plots

# Bar plot with error bars
sns.barplot(data=df, x='condition', y='accuracy', errorbar='se')

# Point plot for trends
sns.pointplot(data=df, x='session', y='performance', hue='group')

# Count plot
sns.countplot(data=df, x='response_type')

Multi-Panel Figures

# FacetGrid for subplots by category
g = sns.FacetGrid(df, col='subject', row='condition')
g.map(sns.histplot, 'reaction_time')

Common Use Cases in Research

Behavioral Analysis

  • Compare reaction times across conditions
  • Visualize learning curves over sessions
  • Show accuracy distributions by group
  • Display trial-by-trial performance

Neural Data

  • Compare firing rates across neurons/conditions
  • Visualize spike count distributions
  • Show calcium signal amplitudes
  • Plot correlation matrices for neural populations

Experimental Results

  • Show group differences with confidence intervals
  • Display longitudinal measurements
  • Visualize multi-factor experiments
  • Create publication-ready summary figures

Getting Started

Install Seaborn:

conda install seaborn
# or
pip install seaborn

Basic example:

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Set theme
sns.set_theme(style='whitegrid')

# Sample data
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'condition': ['A', 'B'] * 50,
    'reaction_time': np.random.normal([0.5, 0.6], 0.1, 100)
})

# Create plot
sns.violinplot(data=df, x='condition', y='reaction_time')
plt.ylabel('Reaction Time (s)')
plt.title('Reaction Times by Condition')
plt.show()

Seaborn Themes

Apply consistent styling:

# Built-in themes
sns.set_theme(style='darkgrid')  # Grid background
sns.set_theme(style='whitegrid')  # White with grid
sns.set_theme(style='dark')       # Dark background
sns.set_theme(style='white')      # Clean white
sns.set_theme(style='ticks')      # With tick marks

# Customize
sns.set_theme(
    context='paper',  # or 'notebook', 'talk', 'poster'
    palette='deep',    # Color palette
    font_scale=1.2     # Scale all fonts
)

Tips

  • Use sns.set_theme() at the start of your notebook
  • Combine with Matplotlib for fine-tuning
  • Use hue, size, style parameters to show additional variables
  • Try sns.pairplot() for quick exploratory analysis
  • Use errorbar='se' or errorbar='sd' for error bars
  • Save color palettes for consistency: pal = sns.color_palette('Set2')
  • Use sns.despine() to remove chart borders

Prerequisites

Resources

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