# Models and neuron groups¶

The core of every simulation is a NeuronGroup, a group of neurons that share the same equations defining their properties. The minimum NeuronGroup specification contains the number of neurons and the model description in the form of equations:

G = NeuronGroup(10, 'dv/dt = -v/(10*ms) : volt')


This defines a group of 10 leaky integrators. The model description can be directly given as a (possibly multi-line) string as above, or as an Equations object. For more details on the form of equations, see Equations. Note that model descriptions can make reference to physical units, but also to scalar variables declared outside of the model description itself:

tau = 10*ms
G = NeuronGroup(10, 'dv/dt = -v/tau : volt')


If a variable should be taken as a parameter of the neurons, i.e. if it should be possible to vary its value across neurons, it has to be declared as part of the model description:

G = NeuronGroup(10, '''dv/dt = -v/tau : volt
tau : second''')


To make complex model descriptions more readable, named subexpressions can be used:

G = NeuronGroup(10, '''dv/dt = I_leak / Cm : volt
I_leak = g_L*(E_L - v) : amp''')


Sometimes it can also be useful to introduce shared variables or subexpressions, i.e. variables that have a common value for all neurons. In contrast to external variables (such as Cm above), such variables can change during a run, e.g. by using run_regularly(). This can be for example used for an external stimulus that changes in the course of a run:

G = NeuronGroup(10, '''shared_input : volt (shared)
dv/dt = (-v + shared_input)/tau : volt
tau : second''')


Note that there are several restrictions around the use of shared variables: they cannot be written to in contexts where statements apply only to a subset of neurons (e.g. reset statements, see below). If a code block mixes statements writing to shared and vector variables, then the shared statements have to come first.

## Threshold and reset¶

To emit spikes, neurons need a threshold. Threshold and reset are given as strings in the NeuronGroup constructor:

tau = 10*ms
G = NeuronGroup(10, 'dv/dt = -v/tau : volt', threshold='v > -50*mV',
reset='v = -70*mV')


Whenever the threshold condition is fulfilled, the reset statements will be executed. Again, both threshold and reset can refer to physical units, external variables and parameters, in the same way as model descriptions:

v_r = -70*mV  # reset potential
G = NeuronGroup(10, '''dv/dt = -v/tau : volt
v_th : volt  # neuron-specific threshold''',
threshold='v > v_th', reset='v = v_r')


## Refractoriness¶

To make a neuron non-excitable for a certain time period after a spike, the refractory keyword can be used:

G = NeuronGroup(10, 'dv/dt = -v/tau : volt', threshold='v > -50*mV',
reset='v = -70*mV', refractory=5*ms)


This will not allow any threshold crossing for a neuron for 5ms after a spike. The refractory keyword allows for more flexible refractoriness specifications, see Refractoriness for details.

## State variables¶

Differential equations and parameters in model descriptions are stored as state variables of the NeuronGroup. They can be accessed and set as an attribute of the group. To get the values without physical units (e.g. for analysing data with external tools), use an underscore after the name:

>>> G = NeuronGroup(10, '''dv/dt = (-v + shared_input)/tau : volt
shared_input : volt (shared)
...                        tau : second''')
>>> G.v = -70*mV
>>> print G.v
<neurongroup.v: array([-70., -70., -70., -70., -70., -70., -70., -70., -70., -70.]) * mvolt>
>>> print G.v_  # values without units
<neurongroup.v_: array([-0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07, -0.07])>
>>> G.shared_input = 5*mV
>>> print G.shared_input
<neurongroup.shared_input: 5.0 * mvolt>


The value of state variables can also be set using string expressions that can refer to units and external variables, other state variables, mathematical functions, and a special variable i, the index of the neuron:

>>> G.tau = '5*ms + 5*ms*rand() + i*5*ms'
>>> print G.tau
<neurongroup.tau: array([  5.03593449,  10.74914808,  19.01641896,  21.66813281,
27.16243388,  31.13571924,  36.28173038,  40.04921519,
47.28797921,  50.18913711]) * msecond>


For shared variables, such string expressions can only refer to shared values:

>>> G.shared_input = 'rand()*mV + 4*mV'
>>> print G.shared_input
<neurongroup.shared_input: 4.2579690100000001 * mvolt>


Sometimes it can be convenient to access multiple state variables at once, e.g. to set initial values from a dictionary of values or to store all the values of a group on disk. This can be done with the Group.get_states() and Group.set_states() methods:

>>> group = NeuronGroup(5, '''dv/dt = -v/tau : 1
...                           tau : second''')
>>> initial_values = {'v': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
...                   'tau': [10, 20, 10, 20, 10]*ms}
>>> group.set_states(initial_values)
>>> group.v[:]
array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.])
>>> group.tau[:]
array([ 10.,  20.,  10.,  20.,  10.]) * msecond
>>> states = group.get_states()
>>> states['v']
array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.])
>>> sorted(states.keys())
['N', 'dt', 'i', 't', 'tau', 'v']


## Subgroups¶

It is often useful to refer to a subset of neurons, this can be achieved using slicing syntax:

G = NeuronGroup(10, '''dv/dt = -v/tau : volt
tau : second''',
threshold='v > -50*mV',
reset='v = -70*mV')
# Create subgroups
G1 = G[:5]
G2 = G[5:]

# This will set the values in the main group, subgroups are just "views"
G1.tau = 10*ms
G2.tau = 20*ms


Subgroups can be used in most places where regular groups are used, e.g. their state variables or spiking activity can be recorded using monitors, they can be connected via Synapses, etc. In such situations, indices (e.g. the indices of the neurons to record from in a StateMonitor) are relative to the subgroup, not to the main group

A NeuronGroup can define parameters that are not stored in this group, but are instead a reference to a state variable in another group. For this, a group defines a parameter as linked and then uses linked_var() to specify the linking. This can for example be useful to model shared noise between cells:

inp = NeuronGroup(1, 'dnoise/dt = -noise/tau + tau**-0.5*xi : 1')

neurons = NeuronGroup(100, '''noise : 1 (linked)
dv/dt = (-v + noise_strength*noise)/tau : volt''')


If the two groups have the same size, the linking will be done in a 1-to-1 fashion. If the source group has the size one (as in the above example) or if the source parameter is a shared variable, then the linking will be done as 1-to-all. In all other cases, you have to specify the indices to use for the linking explicitly:

# two inputs with different phases
inp = NeuronGroup(2, '''phase : 1
dx/dt = 1*mV/ms*sin(2*pi*100*Hz*t-phase) : volt''')
inp.phase = [0, pi/2]

neurons = NeuronGroup(100, '''inp : volt (linked)
dv/dt = (-v + inp) / tau : volt''')
# Half of the cells get the first input, other half gets the second
neurons.inp = linked_var(inp, 'x', index=repeat([0, 1], 50))


## Numerical integration¶

Differential equations are converted into a sequence of statements that integrate the equations numerically over a single time step. By default, Brian chooses an integration method automatically, trying to solve the equations exactly first (for linear equations) and then resorting to numerical algorithms. It will also take care of integrating stochastic differential equations appropriately. Each class defines its own list of algorithms it tries to apply, NeuronGroup and Synapses will use the first suitable method out of the methods 'linear', 'euler' and 'heun' while SpatialNeuron objects will use 'linear', 'exponential_euler', 'rk2' or 'heun'.

If you prefer to chose an integration algorithm yourself, you can do so using the method keyword for NeuronGroup, Synapses, or SpatialNeuron. The complete list of available methods is the following:

• 'linear': exact integration for linear equations
• 'independent': exact integration for a system of independent equations, where all the equations can be analytically solved independently
• 'exponential_euler': exponential Euler integration for conditionally linear equations
• 'euler': forward Euler integration (for additive stochastic differential equations using the Euler-Maruyama method)
• 'rk2': second order Runge-Kutta method (midpoint method)
• 'rk4': classical Runge-Kutta method (RK4)
• 'heun': stochastic Heun method for solving Stratonovich stochastic differential equations with non-diagonal multiplicative noise.
• 'milstein': derivative-free Milstein method for solving stochastic differential equations with diagonal multiplicative noise

You can also define your own numerical integrators, see State update for details.