Basal Ganglia: package to simulate mean field neural dynamics

Very briefly, you can download here a Matlab code to simulate the neural activity in a single, 3-channel, cortico-striatal loop. The parameters used in this example have been hand tuned to replicate the dynamics described in Fiore et al. 2016,Changing pattern in the basal ganglia: motor switching under reduced dopaminergic drive.  http://www.nature.com/articles/srep23327

As a start, you can easily change the main parameter regulating the simulated DA release in the main file (RUN_MOTOR_TEST.m)

or you can manipulate, in the parameter file (motor_loop_par.m), the strength of the connections between the two GP parts, currently set to 0.29. See also the mentioned article for an in depth explanation of these phenomena.

The selection dynamics are *very* sensitive to these parameters, if they are altered alone: an increase in the value of the gpe2gpi connection by 0.02 should be sufficient to recreate the oscillations described in Scientific Reports.

As a reminder, since the original libraries used for the paper have been written in C++, this is not an exact copy of the program used for the simulations published in Scientific Reports, though it is sufficiently close to replicate the results. Please also consider the input is different and the system is tuned for 3 channels rather than 4. Feel free to play with the parameters to see how the selection pattern/behaviour of the agent changes!

DOWLOAD >>> mean_field_BG_complete_loop

Here an example of the results you should see plotted using the basic parameters.

PS PLEASE, if you use this code for any teaching class or for a publication, let me know, so that I can provide the correct references. Thank you!