Connectionists: CARLsim 6: An Open Source Library for Large-Scale, Biologically Detailed Spiking Neural Network Simulation

[Jeffrey Krichmar]

Dear Connectionists,

We are pleased to announce the release of CARLsim 6: An Open Source Library for Large-Scale, Biologically Detailed Spiking Neural Network Simulation.

Abstract. The CARLsim SNN platform is one of the first Open Source simulation systems that utilized CUDA GPUs to address the tremendous parallel processing demands of natural brains. It has evolved over almost a decade in numerous scientific research projects requiring efficient biologically plausible modeling at scale. With its sixth major release, CARLsim 6 respects this legacy by supporting the latest versions of operating systems, development tool chains, multi-core computers, and of course GPUs. It runs on a range of platforms; from Notebooks up to the NVIDIA DGX-A100 supercomputer, and is used in biologically plausible simulations of the hippocampus and neocortex. The latest version has added flexibility for incorporating long-term and short-term synaptic plasticity. Neuromodulation is an important property of neurobiology that can lead to rapid few shot learning, network rewiring, and neural activity modulation. Because of this, CARLsim 6 now supports four multiple neuromodulators for simulating neural excitability and synaptic plasticity.

Software: https://github.com/UCI-CARL/CARLsim6

A paper describing CARLsim 6 can be found here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9892644

A video describing CARLsim 6 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d97ElAiKjc

Best regards,

Jeff Krichmar
Department of Cognitive Sciences
2328 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
jkrichma at uci.edu
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma