Section: Software

DANA: Implementation of computational neuroscience mechanisms

Participants : Nicolas Rougier, Mathieu Lefort, Wahiba Taouali.

Computational neuroscience is a vast domain of research going from the very precise modeling of a single spiking neuron, taking into account ion channels and/or dendrites spatial geometry up to the modeling of very large assemblies of simplified neurons that are able to give account of complex cognitive functions. DANA attempts to address this latter modeling activity by offering a Python computing framework for the design of very large assemblies of neurons using numerical and distributed computations. However, there does not exist something as a unified model of neuron: if the formal neuron has been established some sixty years ago, there exists today a myriad of different neuron models that can be used within an architecture. Some of them are very close to the original definition while some others tend to refine it by providing extra parameters or variables to the model in order to take into account the great variability of biological neurons. DANA makes the assumption that a neuron is essentially a set of numerical values that can vary over time due to the influence of other neurons and learning. DANA aims at providing a constrained and consistent Python framework that guarantee this definition to be enforced anywhere in the model, i.e., no symbol, no homonculus, no central executive.