Application of existing design software to problems in neuronal modeling

The authors describe the application of the Valid/Analog Design Tools circuit simulation package called PC Workbench to the problem of modeling the electrical behavior of neural tissue. A nerve cell representation as an equivalent electrical circuit using compartmental models is presented. Several types of nonexcitable and excitable membranes are designed, and simulation results for different types of electrical stimuli are compared to the corresponding analytical data. It is shown that the hardware/software platform and the models developed constitute an accurate, flexible, and powerful way to study neural tissue.