This page was automatically generated from IAF_neurons_singularity.ipynb.
The original IPython Notebook is included in the NEST Distribution in  /doc/model_details/.

# IAF neurons singularity¶

This notebook describes how NEST handles the singularities appearing in the ODE's of integrate-and-fire model neurons with alpha- or exponentially-shaped current, when the membrane and the synaptic time-constants are identical.

In [1]:
import sympy as sp
sp.init_printing(use_latex=True)
from sympy.matrices import zeros
tau_m, tau_s, C, h = sp.symbols('tau_m, tau_s, C, h')


For alpha-shaped currents we have:

In [2]:
A = sp.Matrix([[-1/tau_s,0,0],[1,-1/tau_s,0],[0,1/C,-1/tau_m]])


## Non-singular case ($\tau_m\neq \tau_s$)¶

The propagator is:

In [3]:
PA = sp.simplify(sp.exp(A*h))
PA

Out[3]:
$$\left[\begin{matrix}e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{s}}} & 0 & 0\\h e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{s}}} & e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{s}}} & 0\\- \frac{\tau_{m} \tau_{s} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{s}} - \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}}{C \left(\tau_{m}^{2} - 2 \tau_{m} \tau_{s} + \tau_{s}^{2}\right)} \left(h \tau_{m} e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} - h \tau_{s} e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} + \tau_{m} \tau_{s} e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} - \tau_{m} \tau_{s} e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{s}}}\right) & - \frac{\tau_{m} \tau_{s} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{s}} - \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}}{C \left(\tau_{m} - \tau_{s}\right)} \left(e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} - e^{\frac{h}{\tau_{s}}}\right) & e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}\end{matrix}\right]$$

Note that the entry in the third line and the second column $A_{32}$ would also appear in the propagator matrix in case of an exponentially shaped current

## Singular case ($\tau_m = \tau_s$)¶

We have

In [4]:
As = sp.Matrix([[-1/tau_m,0,0],[1,-1/tau_m,0],[0,1/C,-1/tau_m]])
As

Out[4]:
$$\left[\begin{matrix}- \frac{1}{\tau_{m}} & 0 & 0\\1 & - \frac{1}{\tau_{m}} & 0\\0 & \frac{1}{C} & - \frac{1}{\tau_{m}}\end{matrix}\right]$$

The propagator is

In [5]:
PAs = sp.simplify(sp.exp(As*h))
PAs

Out[5]:
$$\left[\begin{matrix}e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} & 0 & 0\\h e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} & e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} & 0\\\frac{h^{2} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}}{2 C} & \frac{h}{C} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} & e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}\end{matrix}\right]$$

## Numeric stability of propagator elements¶

For the limes $\tau_s\rightarrow\tau_m$ the entry $PA_{32}$ becomes numerically unstable, since denominator and enumerator go to zero.

$1.$ We show that $PAs_{32}$ is the limit of $PA_{32}(\tau_s)$ for $\tau_s\rightarrow\tau_m$.:

In [6]:
PA_32 = PA.row(2).col(1)[0]
sp.limit(PA_32, tau_s, tau_m)

Out[6]:
$$\frac{h}{C} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}$$

$2.$ The Taylor-series up to the second order of the function $PA_{32}(\tau_s)$ is:

In [7]:
PA_32_series = PA_32.series(x=tau_s,x0=tau_m,n=2)
PA_32_series

Out[7]:
$$\frac{h}{C} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}} + \frac{h^{2} e^{- \frac{h}{\tau_{m}}}}{2 C \tau_{m}^{2}} \left(- \tau_{m} + \tau_{s}\right) + \mathcal{O}\left(\left(- \tau_{m} + \tau_{s}\right)^{2}; \tau_{s}\rightarrow\tau_{m}\right)$$

Therefore we have

$T(PA_{32}(\tau_s,\tau_m))=PAs_{32}+PA_{32}^{lin}+O(2)$ where $PA_{32}^{lin}=h^2(-\tau_m + \tau_s)*exp(-h/\tau_m)/(2C\tau_m^2)$

$3.$ We define

$dev:=|PA_{32}-PAs_{32}|$

We also define $PA_{32}^{real}$ which is the correct value of P32 without misscalculation (instability).

In the following we assume $0<|\tau_s-\tau_m|<0.1$. We consider two different cases

a) When $dev \geq 2|PA_{32}^{lin}|$ we do not trust the numeric evaluation of $PA_{32}$, since it strongly deviates from the first order correction. In this case the error we make is

$|PAs_{32}-PA_{32}^{real}|\approx |P_{32}^{lin}|$

b) When $dev \le |2PA_{32}^{lin}|$ we trust the numeric evaluation of $PA_{32}$. In this case the maximal error occurs when $dev\approx 2 PA_{32}^{lin}$ due to numeric instabilities. The order of the error is again

$|PAs_{32}-PA_{32}^{real}|\approx |P_{32}^{lin}|$

The entry $A_{31}$ is numerically unstable, too and we treat it analogously.

## Tests and examples¶

We will now show that the stability criterion explained above leads to a reasonable behavior for $\tau_s\rightarrow\tau_m$

In [8]:
import nest
import numpy as np
import pylab as pl


Neuron, simulation and plotting parameters

In [9]:
taum = 10.
C_m = 250.
# array of distances between tau_m and tau_ex
epsilon_array = np.hstack(([0.],10.**(np.arange(-6.,1.,1.))))[::-1]
dt = 0.1
fig = pl.figure(1)
NUM_COLORS = len(epsilon_array)
cmap = pl.get_cmap('gist_ncar')
maxVs = []


Loop through epsilon array

In [10]:
for i,epsilon in enumerate(epsilon_array):
nest.ResetKernel() # reset simulation kernel
nest.SetKernelStatus({'resolution':dt})

# Current based alpha neuron
neuron = nest.Create('iaf_psc_alpha')
nest.SetStatus(neuron,{'C_m':C_m,'tau_m':taum,'t_ref':0.,'V_reset':-70.,'V_th':1e32,
'tau_syn_ex':taum+epsilon,'tau_syn_in':taum+epsilon,'I_e':0.})

# create a spike generator
spikegenerator_ex=nest.Create('spike_generator')
nest.SetStatus(spikegenerator_ex,{'spike_times': [50.]})

# create a voltmeter
vm = nest.Create('voltmeter',params={'interval':dt})

## connect spike generator and voltmeter to the neuron

nest.Connect(spikegenerator_ex, neuron,'all_to_all',{'weight':100.})
nest.Connect(vm, neuron)

# run simulation for 200ms
nest.Simulate(200.)

# read out recording time and voltage from voltmeter
times=nest.GetStatus(vm)[0]['events']['times']
voltage=nest.GetStatus(vm)[0]['events']['V_m']

# store maximum value of voltage trace in array
maxVs.append(np.max(voltage))

# plot voltage trace
if epsilon == 0.:
pl.plot(times,voltage,'--',color='black',label='singular')
else:
pl.plot(times,voltage,color = cmap(1.*i/NUM_COLORS),label=str(epsilon))

pl.legend()
pl.xlabel('time t (ms)')
pl.ylabel('voltage V (mV)')

Out[10]:
<matplotlib.text.Text at 0x598b510>

Show maximum values of voltage traces

In [11]:
fig = pl.figure(2)
pl.semilogx(epsilon_array,maxVs,color='red',label='maxV')
#show singular solution as horizontal line
pl.semilogx(epsilon_array,np.ones(len(epsilon_array))*maxVs[-1],color='black',label='singular')
pl.xlabel('epsilon')
pl.ylabel('max(voltage V) (mV)')
pl.legend()

Out[11]:
<matplotlib.legend.Legend at 0x6799350>
In [12]:
pl.show()


The maximum of the voltage traces show that the non-singular case nicely converges to the singular one and no numeric instabilities occur.