by Jessica Palmer

Neural simulators typically fall into one of two categories. On the one hand there are microscopic scale simulators like NEST, Neuron, and Brain, which simulate dynamics and interaction between individual neurons (or neuron compartments) and neuron networks. On the other hand there are larger-scale simulators, like TVB, that use so-called neural mass or neural field models, which describe the lumped activity and the interaction of entire neuron populations. To bridge the gap between these two levels of description, we released the TVB-NEST multiscale simulation tool on the HBP Collab platform here (requires a login for HBP platforms), along with tutorials and documentation.

The toolbox is written in Python, providing users with a convenient interface to set up and simulate multi-scale models. Communication between NEST and TVB is automatically handled, enabling the co-simulation of NEST spiking networks and TVB brain networks and the exchange of synaptic currents between the two. To get a quick introduction into usage on HBP supercomputers from Collab space check out this  video.

The TVB-NEST multiscale toolbox is also available as a standalone Python package at github. For a quick introduction check out  this video.