Dear colleagues,

Many of you may be interested the first release of our VERTEX simulator for biologically realistic models of primate cortical tissue.

The Virtual Electrode Recording Tool for EXtracellular potentials (VERTEX) is a Matlab tool for simulating extracellular potential recordings in spiking neural network (SNN) models.

As a first application, our model allows us to reproduce temporal and spatial gamma oscillation features of in vitro MEA recordings of macaque cortex using more than 100,000 model neurons. However, adapting the code to other species or tissue types is also possible in the future (see FAQ on our website). 

VERTEX 1.0 Release Features

• VERTEX simulator allows large simulations (> 100 000 neurons) on single computers
• In silico neuronal network model of an in vitro brain slice recording
• Realistic local field potential recording with “virtual electrodes” at any 3D point
• Direct comparisons between simulated and experimentally observed tissue

Software, a two-minute introductory video, tutorials, manuals, and a FAQ can be found at: http://www.vertexsimulator.org/

This release is in conjunction with our publication:

Tomsett RJ, Ainsworth M, Thiele A, Sanayei M, Chen X, Gieselmann A, Whittington MA, Cunningham MO, Kaiser M. Virtual Electrode Recording Tool for EXtracellular potentials (VERTEX): Comparing multi-electrode recordings from simulated and biological mammalian cortical tissue. Brain Structure and Function (in press) http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429–014–0793-x

Best,
  Marcus

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Marcus Kaiser, Ph.D.
Associate Professor (Reader) in Neuroinformatics
School of Computing Science
Newcastle University
Claremont Tower
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

Lab website:
http://www.dynamic-connectome.org/ 

Neuroinformatics@Newcastle:
http://neuroinformatics.ncl.ac.uk/