BRIAN simulator

On July 13th 2013, we’ll have a tutorial on « Advanced modelling of spiking neural networks with Brian » at the CNS conference in Paris, covering various topics around the available Brian toolboxes, the ongoing Brian development and general handy ... [More] tricks to cope with complex simulations. The tutorial will also feature an open questions sessions in the [...] [Less]

Almost all work in philosophy of science concerns the question of how a scientific theory is validated, by confronting it with empirical evidence. The converse, how a theory is formulated in the first place, is considered as a mysterious process that concerns the field of psychology. As a result of this focus, one might be [...]

A striking fact about the making of science is that in any field of research, there are considerable disagreements between scientists. This is an interesting observation, because it contradicts the naive view of science as a progressive accumulation ... [More] of knowledge. Indeed, if science worked in this way, then any disagreement should concern empirical data only [...] [Less]

Computational neuroscience is a field that seeks a mechanistic understanding of cognition. It has the ambition to explain how cognition arises from the interaction of neurons, to the point that if the rules that govern the brain are understood in sufficient detail, it should be in principle possible to simulate them on a computer. Therefore, [...]

In a previous post, I argued that some artificial sounds might be wrongly presented as if they were not natural, because ecological environments are complex and so natural sounds are diverse. But what if they were actually not natural? Perhaps these particular sounds can be encountered in a natural environment, but there might be [...]

Perhaps the biggest puzzle in loudness perception is why a pure tone, or a stationary sound such as a noise burst, feels like it has constant loudness. Or more generally: why does a pure tone feel like it is a constant sound? (both in loudness and other qualities like pitch) The question is [...]

Some types of artificial sounds presented through headphones are sometimes described as not natural, in the sense that they have binaural relationships that sounds in a natural environment do not have. In general, this qualification refers to the ... [More] qualities of point sources in an anechoic environment, but real environments reflect sounds and there are [...] [Less]

In the previous post, I discussed proximal aspects of loudness, which depend on the acoustical wave at the ear. For example, when we say that a sound is too loud, we are referring to an unpleasant feeling related to the effect of acoustical waves sensed at the ear. That is, the same sound source would [...]

What is time and how is it perceived? This is of course a vast philosophical question, which I will only scratch. 1) Time, space and existence It is customary to describe time as “the fourth dimension”. This point of view comes from the equations of mechanics and is highly misleading, because it seems to imply [...]

Cyrille Rossant, one of the developers of Brian, has written a new book « Learning IPython for Interactive Computing and Data Visualization« . Recently, IPython has really become an excellent tool for scientific computation, growing far beyond its ... [More] roots as an enhanced interactive shell for Python. It now supports the IPython notebook (which lets you mix text, [...] [Less]