Brian 2, an intuitive and efficient neural simulator

Abstract
Data availability
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Abstract

Brian 2 allows scientists to simply and efficiently simulate spiking neural network models. These models can feature novel dynamical equations, their interactions with the environment, and experimental protocols. To preserve high performance when defining new models, most simulators offer two options: low-level programming or description languages. The first option requires expertise, is prone to errors, and is problematic for reproducibility. The second option cannot describe all aspects of a computational experiment, such as the potentially complex logic of a stimulation protocol. Brian addresses these issues using runtime code generation. Scientists write code with simple and concise high-level descriptions, and Brian transforms them into efficient low-level code that can run interleaved with their code. We illustrate this with several challenging examples: a plastic model of the pyloric network, a closed-loop sensorimotor model, a programmatic exploration of a neuron model, and an auditory model with real-time input.

Data availability

Source code to replicate Figures 1-7, as well as the simulations shown in Appendix 4, are provided in a github repository (https://github.com/brian-team/brian2_paper_examples). Source code to run benchmarks as presented in Figure 8 is provided as a supplementary file together with this submission (benchmark_code.zip)

Article and author information

Author details

Marcel Stimberg

Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Paris, France

For correspondence
marcel.stimberg@inserm.fr

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2648-4790
Romain Brette

Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Université, INSERM, CNRS, Paris, France

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0110-1623
Dan FM Goodman

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1007-6474

Funding

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Axode ANR-14-CE13-0003)

Romain Brette

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.