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EBRAINS Swedish Node Workshop 2025: NEST Tutorials

Version 18.2 by spreizer on 2025/07/30 11:06

NEST Tutorials

EBRAINS Swedish Node, Stockholm, 25/08/25 - 27/08/25

From single-cell modeling to large-scale network dynamics with NEST Simulator

Instructor: Sebastian Spreizer, PhD, University of Trier and Research Center Jülich

- Abstract

The tutorial is composed of three parts in which the user learns to simulate with NEST step by step. 

Time schedule

9 - 11NEST Desktophttps://nest-desktop.readthedocs.org/
12 - 15NEST Simulatorhttps://nest-simulator.readthedocs.org/
15 - 18NESTMLhttps://nestml.readthedocs.org/

1) NEST Desktop

The first part of the tutorial, we look at NEST Desktop.  As a goal we will create and analyze a balanced two-population network.

2) NEST Simulator

The tutorial will then turn to Jupyter (Python) notebooks where we will start by creating a spiking neurons. Here, we learn advanced steps to write code with NEST Simulation syntax. The scripting codes allow us to customize sophisticated use cases with NEST simulations. Examples are:

  • neuronal dynamics
  • large scale networks,
  • networks of spatial neurons
  • using plasticity

3) NESTML

The last part is using NESTML to create custom neuron and synapse models for NEST Simulator. A functional plasticity rule will then be introduced into the balanced E/I network to implement a biologically realistic version of reinforcement learning. This will be done by formulating the learning model in the NESTML language syntax, and using the associated toolchain to generate code for NEST [4].

 

Contents