NEST Extension Module Example

This repository contains an example extension module (i.e., a “plugin”) for NEST Simulator. Extension modules allow users to extend the functionality of NEST without messing with the source code of NEST itself, thus making pulls from upstream easy, while allowing to extend NEST and sharing the extensions with other researchers.

In order to showcase the possibilites of extension modules and their use, this extension module example contains the following (intentionally simple and more or less silly) custom example components:

  • A neuron model called pif_psc_alpha, which implements a non-leaky integrate-and-fire model with alpha-function shaped post-synaptic potentials.

  • A synapse model called drop_odd_spike_connection, which drops all spikes that arrive at odd-numbered points on the simulation time grid and delivers only those arriving at even-numbered grid points.

  • A connection builder called step_pattern_builder, which creates step-pattern connectivity between the neurons of a source and a target population.

  • A recording backend called RecordingBackendSocket, which streams out the data from spike recorders to an external (or local) server via UDP.

  • A recording backend called RecordingBackendSoundClick, which creates the illusion of a realistic sound from an electrophysiological spike recording device.

For a list of modules developed by other users you can check out the list of forks of this repository.

Note

For developing custom neuron and synapse models, please consider using the NESTML modeling language.

Attention

Please note that the code in this repository will not work with NEST versions earlier than NEST 3.10. The extension module is generally kept adapted and up-to-date with the NEST main branch on https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator as well as the latest NEST release (starting from NEST 3.10).

For extension modules that support older versions of NEST, please browse the history of this repository. For support for 2.x versions of NEST, see the extension module example in examples/MyModule of the source distribution.

Adapting MyModule

If you want to create your own custom extension module using MyModule as a start, you have to perform the following steps:

  1. Replace all occurences of the strings MyModule, mymodule and my by something more descriptive and appropriate for your module.

  2. Remove the example functionality you do not need.

  3. Adapt the example functionality you do need to your needs.