A Neuronal Multisensory Processing Simulator

In general, simulation of brain function involves a serial process that includes conceptual definition and design, computational (or mathematical) modeling, testing the correlation between model output and the brain, and generation of biologically testable hypotheses. Processing simulators provide a specific simulation environment in which computational models can be custom built according to their conceptual model of interest, as well as evaluate the result of the simulation by using analytic tools in the simulator. In this paper we describe a new simulator, the Neuronal Multisensory Processing Simulator (NMPS) designed primarily to model the first requisite step of multisensory processing: multisensory convergence. The NMPS generated a network of spiking neurons and stimulated convergent inputs to those neurons. Analysis of both neurons and network revealed responses similar to biological multisensory processing, and provided insight into multisensory features currently inaccessible to observation or experimentation.