G-clamp dynamic clamp software, manuals and publications

[John P. Horn]

Dear Connectionists:

The dynamic clamp method lies at the interface between computational
modeling and cellular electrophysiology.

We have recently implemented dynamic clamp methodology using the realtime
LabVIEW software environment together with hardware that is sold by National
instruments.

The system is called G-clamp and it allows for high performance 16-bit
system dynamic clamp implementation of voltage-dependent conductances and
templates of synaptic activity.  We have written a second program called
Neurosim.  Neurosim is a MATLAB program that implements a conductance-based
model sympathetic neuron and can also can create synaptic template files for
driving G-clamp.  

G-clamp and Neurosim software, together with manuals describing their
installation, operation and modification can now be downloaded from
http://hornlab.neurobio.pitt.edu/

In designing G-clamp, we tried to make it flexible, while also easy to learn
and use.

Our website also contains links to two papers:

Kullmann et al. (2004) explains the design and performance of the G-clamp
system.  

Wheeler et al. (2004) shows how the method can be used to implement patterns
of virtual synaptic activity and assess the synaptic gain that arises from
anatomical convergence of excitatory synapses.


John P. Horn, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Neurobiology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
jph at pitt.edu