<p>One reason why MATLAB is so popular in neuroscience may be because it's easy to get new students who don't know how to program to get stuff done relatively quickly. </p>

<p>A related reason is that it's easy to use someone else's code (be it official toolboxes or freely available ones).</p>

<p>Both of these don't tend to promote good programming practice and skill.</p>

<p>I'm finding this is a great place to learn!</p>

Matt Mizumi