.. currentmodule:: brian

.. _usermanual-synapses:

Synapses
========

Starting from Brian 1.4, there is a new class, :class:`Synapses`, in which everything synaptic can be defined.
The :class:`Synapses` is similar to the :class:`Connection` class, but it is more general and flexible. In particular,
synaptic plasticity can be defined in the same object.

Defining synaptic models
------------------------
The basic syntax is as follows::

  S=Synapses(P,Q,model='w:1',pre='v+=w')

This defines a set of synapses between :class:`NeuronGroup` P and :class:`NeuronGroup` Q.
If the target group is not specified, it is identical to the source group by default.
The ``model`` keyword
is similar as in :class:`NeuronGroup`: it defines synaptic variables and possibly their dynamics
(with differential equations, as in :class:`NeuronGroup`). Here, synaptic variable ``w`` is created: there is
one value for each synapse. The ``pre`` keyword defines what happens when a presynaptic spike arrives at
a synapse. In this case, variable ``w`` is added to variable ``v``. Because ``v`` is not defined as a synaptic
variable, it is assumed by default that it is a postsynaptic variable, defined in the target :class:`NeuronGroup` Q.
Note that this does not does create synapses (see next section), only the synaptic models.

The more general syntax is::

  S=Synapses(P,Q,model=model_string,pre=pre_code,post=post_code)

Model syntax
^^^^^^^^^^^^
The model follows exactly the same syntax as for :class:`NeuronGroup`. There can be parameters
(e.g. synaptic variable ``w`` above), but there can also be static equations and differential equations,
describing the dynamics of synaptic variables. In all cases, synaptic variables are created, one value per synapse.
Internally, these are stored as arrays. There are a few specificities:

* A variable with the ``_post`` suffix is looked up in the postsynaptic (target) neuron. That is,
  ``v_post`` means variable ``v`` in the postsynaptic neuron.
* A variable with the ``_pre`` suffix is looked up in the presynaptic (source) neuron.
* A variable not defined as a synaptic variable is considered to be postsynaptic.
* A variable not defined as a synaptic variable and not defined in the postsynaptic neuron is considered
  external.

For the integration of differential equations, one can use the same keywords as for :class:`NeuronGroup`.

Event-driven updates
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By default, differential equations are integrated in a clock-driven fashion, as for a
:class:`NeuronGroup`. This is potentially very time consuming, because all synapses are updated at every
timestep. It is possible to ask Brian to simulate differential equations in an event-driven fashion,
for one-dimensional linear equations, using the keyword ``(event-driven)``. A typical example is
pre and postsynaptic traces in STDP::

  model='''w:1
           dApre/dt=-Apre/taupre : 1 (event-driven)
           dApost/dt=-Apost/taupost : 1 (event-driven)'''

Here, Brian updates the value of ``Apre`` for a given synapse only when this synapse receives a spike,
whether it is presynaptic or postsynaptic. More precisely, the variables are updated every time either
the ``pre`` or ``post`` code is called for the synapse, so that the values are always up to date when
these codes are executed.

Automatic event-driven updates are only possible for one-dimensional linear equations. These equations
must also be independent of the other ones, that is, a differential equation that is not event-driven cannot
depend on an event-driven equation (since the values are not continuously updated).
In other cases, the user can write event-driven code explicitly in the update codes (see below).

Pre and post codes
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The ``pre`` (``post``) code is executed at each synapse receiving a presynaptic spike. For example:

	pre='v+=w'

adds the value of synaptic variable ``w`` to postsynaptic variable ``v``. As for the model equations,
the ``_post`` (``_pre``) suffix indicates a postsynaptic (presynaptic) variable, and variables not found
in the synaptic variables are considered postsynaptic by default.
Internally, the execution of the code is vectorized (simultaneously executed) for all synapses receiving
presynaptic spikes during the current timestep. Therefore, the code should be understood as acting on
arrays rather than single values. Any sort of code can be executed. For example, the following code defines
stochastic synapses, with a synaptic weight ``w`` and transmission probability ``p``::

	S=Synapses(input,neurons,model="""w : 1
    	                              p : 1""",
        	                 pre="v+=w*(rand()<p)")

The code means that ``w`` is added to ``v`` with probability ``p`` (note that, internally, ``rand()``
is transformed to a instruction that outputs an array of random numbers).
The code may also include multiple lines.

As mentioned above, it is possible to write event-driven update code for the synaptic variables.
For this, two special variables are provided: ``t`` is the current time when the code is executed,
and ``lastupdate`` is the last time when the synapse was updated (either through ``pre`` or ``post``
code). An example is short-term plasticity (in fact this could be done automatically with the use
of the ``(event-driven)`` keyword mentioned above)::

	S=Synapses(input,neuron,
	           model='''x : 1
	                    u : 1
	                    w : 1''',
	           pre='''u=U+(u-U)*exp(-(t-lastupdate)/tauf)
	                  x=1+(x-1)*exp(-(t-lastupdate)/taud)
	                  i+=w*u*x
	                  x*=(1-u)
	                  u+=U*(1-u)''')

Lumped variables
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In many cases, the postsynaptic neuron has a variable that represents a sum of variables over all
its synapses. This is called a "lumped variable". An example is nonlinear synapses (e.g. NMDA)::

	neurons = NeuronGroup(1, model="""dv/dt=(gtot-v)/(10*ms) : 1
	                                  gtot : 1""")
	S=Synapses(input,neurons,
	           model='''dg/dt=-a*g+b*x*(1-g) : 1
	                    dx/dt=-c*x : 1
	                    w : 1 # synaptic weight
	                 ''',
	           pre='x+=w')
	neurons.gtot=S.g

Here, each synapse has a conductance ``g`` with nonlinear dynamics. The neuron's total conductance
is ``gtot``. The link between the two is specified by the last statement. What happens during the
simulation is that at each time step, presynaptic conductances are summed for each neuron and the
result is copied to the variable ``gtot``. Another example is gap junctions::

	neurons = NeuronGroup(N, model='''dv/dt=(v0-v+Igap)/tau : 1
									  Igap : 1''')
	S=Synapses(neurons,model='''w:1 # gap junction conductance
    	                        Igap=w*(v_pre-v_post): 1''')
	neurons.Igap=S.Igap

Here, ``Igap`` is the total gap junction current received by the postsynaptic neuron.

Creating synapses
-----------------
Creating a :class:`Synapses` instance does not create synapses, it only specifies their dynamics.
The following command creates a synapse between neuron i in the source group and j in the target group::

	S[i,j]=True

It is possible to create several synapses for a given pair of neurons::

	S[i,j]=3

This is useful for example if one wants to have multiple synapses with different delays.
Multiple synapses can be created in a single statement::

	S[:,:]=True
	S[:,1]=True
	S[Pe,Pi]=True

The first statement creates synapses between all pairs of neurons.
The second statement creates synapses between all neurons in the source group and neuron 1
in the target group.
The third statement connects all pairs of neurons in the subgroups ``Pe`` and ``Pi``.

One can also create synapses using code::

	S[:,:]='i==j'
	S[:,:]='j==((i+1)%N)'

The code is a boolean statement that should return True when a synapse must be created,
where ``i`` is the presynaptic neuron index and ``j`` is the postsynaptic neuron index
(special variables).
Here the first statement creates one-to-one connections, the second statement creates connections
with a ring structure (``N`` is the number of neurons, assumed to defined elsewhere by the user).
This way of creating synapses is generally much faster than using loops, because it is internally
vectorised.

Two high level construction methods are implemented::

	S.connect_random(group1,group2,sparseness=0.1)
	S.connect_one_to_one(group1,group2)
	
The first one randomly connects pairs of neurons with probability given by the ``sparseness`` argument.
The second one is equivalent to the instruction ``S[group1,group2]='i==j'``. The ``group1`` and
``group2`` arguments are subgroups of the source and target groups.

Accessing synaptic variables
----------------------------
Synaptic variables can be accessed in a similar way as :class:`NeuronGroup` variables. They can indexed
with two indexes, corresponding to the indexes of pre and postsynaptic neurons, and optionally with a third
index in the case of multiple synapses.
Here are a few examples, which follows essentially the same syntax as for creating synapses::

	S.w[2,5]=1*nS
	S.w[1,:]=2*nS
	S.w=1*nS # all synapses assigned
	w0=S.w[2,3,1] # second synapse for connection 2->3
	S.w[2,3]=(1*nS,2*nS)
	S.w[group1,group2]="(1+cos(i-j))*2*nS"
	S.w[:,:]='rand()*nS'

Delays
------
There is a special synaptic variable that is automatically created: ``delay``. It is the propagation delay
from the presynaptic neuron to the synapse, i.e., the presynaptic delay. An alias is ``delay_pre``. When there
is a postsynaptic code (keyword ``post``), the variable ``delay_post`` is created. These can be accessed and modified
in the same way as other synaptic variables.

If delays can change during the simulation, one should specify the maximum allowed delay with the keyword
``max_delay``::

	synapses = Synapses(P,Q,model='w:1',pre='v+=w',max_delay=1*ms)

Otherwise, this maximum delay is automatically calculated the first time the model is run.

Multiple pathways
-----------------
It is possible to have multiple pathways with different update codes from the same presynaptic neuron group.
This may be interesting in cases when different operations must be applied at different times for the same
presynaptic spike. To do this, simply specify a tuple or list of ``pre`` codes::

    pre=('ge+=w',
         '''w=clip(w+Apost,0,inf)
            Apre+=dApre''')

This creates two sets of delay variables, one for each pathway. They can be accessed by first indexing with
the pathway number. The following statement, for example, sets the delay of the synapse between the first neurons
of the source and target groups, in the second pathway::

	S.delay[1][0,0]=3*ms

Monitoring synaptic variables
-----------------------------
A :class:`StateMonitor` object can be used to monitor synaptic variables. For example, the following statement
creates a monitor for variable ``w`` for the synapses 0 and 1::

	M = StateMonitor(S,'w',record=[0,1])

Note that these are synapse indexes, not neuron indexes.
These can be obtained with the :meth:`~Synapses.synapse_index` method::

	s=S.synapse_index((i,j))

where ``i`` and ``j`` may be integers, arrays or slices. A third index can also be given.

The recorded traces can then be accessed in the usual way, for example::

	plot(M.times,M[0])