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In 2001, the software changed its name from SYNOD to NEST. Until 2004, NEST was exclusively developed and used by the founding members of the NEST Initiative. The first public release appeared in summer 2004. Since then, NEST was released regularly, about once or twice per year.
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To manipulate or observe the network dynamics, the experimenter can define so-called devices which represent the various instruments (for measuring and stimulation) found in an experiment. These devices write their data either to
249:. In a NEST network, different neuron and synapse models can coexist. Any two neurons can have multiple connections with different properties. Thus, the connectivity can in general not be described by a weight or
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Djurfeldt, Mikael; Hjorth, Johannes; Eppler, Jochen M.; Dudani, Niraj; Helias, Moritz; Potjans, Tobias C.; Bhalla, Upinder S.; Diesmann, Markus; Hellgren
Kotaleski, Jeanette; Ekeberg, Örjan (2010).
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models, including large-scale neuronal networks. NEST was initially developed by Markus
Diesmann and Marc-Oliver Gewaltig and is now developed and maintained by the NEST Initiative.
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Henker, S.; Partzsch, J.; Schüffny, R. (2012). "Accuracy evaluation of numerical methods used in state-of-the-art simulators for spiking neural networks".
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interface, however, the old simulation language is still used internally. At the same time, the simulator independent specification language
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By default, spikes fall onto the grid, defined by the simulation time-step. Some models support spike-exchange in continuous time.
1250:. At this time, the simulator was called SYNOD and simulations were defined in a stack based simulation language, called SLI.
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was developed with support for NEST. In 2012, the NEST Initiative changed the license from the proprietary NEST License to
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The following example simulates spiking activity in a sparse random network with recurrent excitation and inhibition
295:. Time increases along the horizontal axis, neuron id increases along the vertical axis. Each dot corresponds to a
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Davison, A. P.; Brüderle, D.; Eppler, J.; Kremkow, J.; Muller, E.; Pecevski, D.; Perrinet, L.; Yger, P. (2009).
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package that controls the NEST simulation kernel. PyNEST aims at easy usability and seamless interaction with
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1575:"Efficient Parallel Simulation of Large-Scale Neuronal Networks on Clusters of Multiprocessor Computers"
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Plesser, Hans E.; Eppler, Jochen M.; Morrison, Abigail; Diesmann, Markus; Gewaltig, Marc-Oliver (2007).
1525:"Exact Subthreshold Integration with Continuous Spike Times in Discrete-Time Neural Network Simulations"
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1478:"Exact digital simulation of time-invariant linear systems with applications to neuronal modeling"
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1612:"Run-Time Interoperability Between Neuronal Network Simulators Based on the MUSIC Framework"
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is a simulator independent language for neural simulations, which supports NEST as well as
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NEST development was started in 1993 by Markus
Diesmann and Marc-Oliver Gewaltig at the
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1388:"Dynamics of Sparsely Connected Networks of Excitatory and Inhibitory Spiking Neurons"
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Morrison, Abigail; Straube, Sirko; Plesser, Hans
Ekkehard; Diesmann, Markus (2007).
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NEST is extensible and new models for neurons, synapses, and devices can be added.
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Eppler, Jochen M.; Helias, M.; Muller, E.; Diesmann, M.; Gewaltig, M. O. (2008).
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of the respective neuron at a given time. The lower part of the figure shows a
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Markus
Diesmann, Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, Abigail Morrison, Hans Ekkehard Plesser
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Each neuron model has its appropriate solver and many models have unit tests.
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In 2008, the stack-based simulation language SLI was superseded by a modern
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experiment that takes place inside a computer with the difference, that the
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Parallelization is handled semi-automatically by NEST's simulation kernel.
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1581:. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 4641. pp. 672–681.
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Static synapses with homogeneous or heterogeneous weight and delay.
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Interface to the Multi
Simulator Coordinator, developed by the
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models with different types of synaptic currents or potentials
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Support for hybrid multi-threaded and distributed simulation.
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Interface to the simulator independent simulation language
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NEST aims at high accuracy and precision of its simulations
773:# Connect the random net and instrument it with the devices
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The neural system is defined by a possibly large number of
1732:"PyNN: A Common Interface for Neuronal Network Simulators"
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to be investigated must be defined by the experimenter.
1681:"PyNEST: A convenient interface to the NEST simulator"
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Short-term plasticity (Tsodyks & Markram synapses)
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Since 2007, NEST supports hybrid parallelism, using
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1314:NEST also maintains its own simulation language
1196:Supra-linear to linear scaling for up to 10000
1179:Support for multi-threaded simulation, using
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1289:NEST primary user interface is PyNEST, a
303:with the mean firing-rate of the neurons.
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1476:Rotter, Stefan; Diesmann, Markus (1999).
1141:Multimeter for potentials, currents, etc.
1147:Noise generators (Poisson, Gauss, Gamma)
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1166:If possible, exact integration is used.
452:# Set parameters of neurons and devices
1068:models with conductance based synapses
1435:Journal of Computational Neuroscience
1392:Journal of Computational Neuroscience
1150:Spike generators for replay of spikes
7:
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1320:Stack-oriented programming language
1311:, as well as neuromorphic hardware.
1174:Parallel and distributed simulation
1144:AC, DC, and step current generators
1318:(SLI), which understands a simple
18:Novell Embedded Systems Technology
14:
1668:. 2012-07-11 – via YouTube.
1579:Euro-Par 2007 Parallel Processing
1114:Spike-timing-dependent plasticity
230:tries to follow the logic of an
1829:Scientific simulation software
1:
1736:Frontiers in Neuroinformatics
1685:Frontiers in Neuroinformatics
1240:Weizmann Institute of Science
638:"poisson_generator"
491:"poisson_generator"
26:NEST (Neural Simulation Tool)
1587:10.1007/978-3-540-74466-5_71
557:# Create neurons and devices
1794:List of simulation packages
87:3.3 / 22 March 2023
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1819:Computational neuroscience
1352:Computational Neuroscience
1100:Data-driven network models
734:"static_synapse"
683:"static_synapse"
668:# Configure synapse models
662:"spike_detector"
524:"spike_detector"
171:Computational Neuroscience
15:
1749:10.3389/neuro.11.011.2008
1698:10.3389/neuro.11.012.2008
1628:10.1007/s12021-010-9064-z
1541:10.1162/neco.2007.19.1.47
1447:10.1007/s10827-011-0353-9
608:"iaf_psc_delta"
578:"iaf_psc_delta"
467:"iaf_psc_delta"
102:
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1661:NEST - A brain simulator
1386:Brunel, Nicolas (2000).
878:'fixed_indegree'
815:'fixed_indegree'
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16:Not to be confused with
1404:10.1023/A:1008925309027
1122:Neuromodulated synapses
356:# external Poisson rate
89:; 17 months ago
65:1 August 2004
1482:Biological Cybernetics
1322:that is influenced by
1232:Ruhr University Bochum
968:# Simulate for 100. ms
938:"excitatory"
896:"inhibitory"
833:"excitatory"
740:"inhibitory"
689:"excitatory"
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216:spiking neural network
1839:Free science software
1814:Computational biology
1494:10.1007/s004220050570
1091:Random neural network
1073:Hodgkin–Huxley models
287:The figure shows the
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1096:Topological networks
884:"indegree"
821:"indegree"
533:"withtime"
232:electrophysiological
1824:Simulation software
1071:Single compartment
545:"withgid"
416:"V_reset"
344:# inhibitory weight
329:# excitatory weight
291:of 50 neurons as a
251:connectivity matrix
222:Modeling philosophy
212:simulation software
56:The NEST Initiative
27:
1529:Neural Computation
1347:GENESIS (software)
1297:and its libraries.
1238:, Germany and the
1066:Integrate-and-fire
1060:Integrate-and-fire
749:"weight"
698:"weight"
282:
41:Original author(s)
1666:Bernstein Network
1596:978-3-540-74465-8
1342:Neuron (software)
1080:MAT2 neuron model
761:"delay"
710:"delay"
392:"t_ref"
380:"tau_m"
253:but rather as an
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1799:Nest simulator
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989:# Plot results
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