The Neuron

This is the current project and is unfinished. Always has been. Always will be.

A typical neuron with all its component parts (Synapses,Dendrites, Soma and Axon) has a membrane surface area of about 250,000 µm2. The surface area of the 86 billion neurons that make up the human brain is therefor about 25,000 m2 or roughly the size of four football fields.
This expanse of membrane constitutes the fabric of our minds.

This is an image of what can be setup with the NeuronLab simulator

Full Size image here:

Video - Download and install

Video - Quick Start

Video - First Complete Neuron

Simple Model of Spiking Neurons

In Izhikevich's book 'Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience' he develops a model that is:

  • Computationally simple
  • Capable of producing firing patters exhibited by biological neurons

In chapter 8 he uses various parameter setting to achieve simulations of:

  1. Regular Spiking [RS]
  2. Intrinsically Bursting [IB]
  3. Cat primary visual chattering [CH]
  4. Low Threshold Spiking [LTS]
  5. Layer 5 rat visual cortex Interneurons [FS]
  6. Cat Dorsal hypothalamically [TC]
  7. Rat reticular thalamic Nucleus [RTN]

The NeuronLab simulator can produce these waveforms and allow you experiment with the parameter settings as you wish. This video will guide you through the setup and use of this feature.

Regular Spiking [RS] Video

 

Intrinsically Bursting [IB] and chattering [CH] Neurons video

The remaining neuron models can be completed using these as examples.