igitugraz / spikedetectorfuse

The nest module that implements a spike detector that terminates the simulation on large spiking

Spike Detector Fuse for NEST

This module monitors the spiking activity of the network, and throws a python exception if the spiking activity goes beyond the given threshold for the given length of time. See the comments in the code for more details.

It is a module for the NEST simulator.

Installation

With the appropriate nest-config in your PATH run ./install.sh in the root directory.

Once the installation is done, add /path/to/nest/installation/lib/nest/ to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

Usage

import nest
nest.Install('spikedetfusemodule')
...  # Create your neurons and connect up your network
spike_det = nest.Create('spike_detector_fuse')
nest.Connect(neurons, spike_det)
# Setting termination criterion
nest.SetStatus(spike_det, {'frequency_thresh':200.0, 'length_thresh':50.0, 'n_connected_neurons':len(exc_neurons)})
...  # Run your simulation
try:
    nest.Simulate(200)
except nest.NESTError as E:
    E_msg = E.args[0]
    if E_msg.startswith('UnstableSpiking'):
        print(E_msg)
    else:
        raise

In this example, if your average network activity stays beyond 200Hz for longer than 50ms, a nest.NESTError will be thrown with message 'UnstableSpiking in Simulate_d: The Network seems to be in a regime of unstable spiking, terminating simulation'

Important notes

• nest.Simulate() cannot be run again without resetting the kernel by running nest.ResetKernel() once an unstable spiking exception is thrown
• Data upto the simulation slice where the exception is thrown can be safely retrieved and parsed even if the above exception is thrown.

spikedetectorfuse's Issues

Write Proper Tests which check for realistic spike rates

The current tests end up with an instantaneous blowup in activity which naturally causes UnstableException to be thrown by all the nest threads at the same time slice. Hence it is not a valid test for the error throwing synchronization.