Section: Software and Platforms

Spiking neural networks simulation

Participants : Dominique Martinez, Yann Boniface.

A spiking neuron is usually modeled as a differential equation describing the evolution over time of its membrane potential. Each time the voltage reaches a given threshold, a spike is sent to other neurons depending on the connectivity. A spiking neural network is then described as a system of coupled differential equations. For the simulation of such a network we have written two simulation engines: (i) Mvaspike based on an event-driven approach and (ii) sirene based on a time-driven approach.

• Mvaspike: The event-driven simulation engine was developed in C++ and is available on http://mvaspike.gforge.inria.fr . Mvaspike is a general event-driven purpose tool aimed at modeling and simulating large, complex networks of biological neural networks. It allows to achieve good performance in the simulation phase while maintaining a high level of flexibility and programmability in the modeling phase. A large class of spiking neurons can be used ranging from standard leaky integrate-and-fire neurons to more abstract neurons, e.g. defined as complex finite state machines.

• Sirene: The time-driven simulator engine was written in C and is available on http://sirene.gforge.inria.fr . It has been developed for the simulation of biologically detailed models of neurons —such as conductance-based neurons— and synapses. Its high flexibility allows the user to implement easily any type of neuronal or synaptic model and use the appropriate numerical integration routine (e.g. Runge-Kutta at given order).