Additional efficient computation of branched nerve equations: adaptive time step and ideal voltage clamp.

Abstract

Various improvements are described for the simulation of biophysically and anatomically detailed compartmental models of single neurons and networks of neurons. These include adaptive time-step integration and a reordering of the circuit matrix to allow ideal voltage clamp of arbitrary nodes. We demonstrate how the adaptive time-step method can give equivalent accuracy as a fixed time-step method for typical current clamp simulation protocols, with about a 2.5 reduction in runtime. The ideal voltage clamp method is shown to be more stable than the nonideal case, in particular when used with the adaptive time-step method. Simulation results are presented using the Surf-Hippo Neuron Simulation System, a public domain object-oriented simulator written in Lisp.