synapser

Synapser is an open-source software platform for modeling and analyzing synaptic transmission in neural networks. It provides tools to simulate synaptic dynamics, plasticity, and network activity, enabling researchers and educators to explore how synapses influence information processing in neural circuits.

Its model library includes excitatory and inhibitory synapses, receptor kinetics, and common plasticity rules such as spike-timing-dependent plasticity. Users can construct networks from simple integrate-and-fire neurons to more detailed conductance-based models, perform parameter sweeps, and visualize activity through built-in plots and dashboards.

Synapser follows a modular architecture with a core simulation engine and independent plug-ins for neurons, synapses, and learning rules. It offers interfaces in Python and C++, supports JSON or YAML model descriptions, and can run simulations in parallel on multi-core CPUs or GPUs where available.

Applications span computational neuroscience research, education, and methodology development. The platform emphasizes reproducibility, sharing of model configurations, and extensible workflows through community-contributed plugins. It is released under a permissive open-source license to encourage collaboration and broad adoption.

Development is community-driven, with contributions from researchers and educators. The project maintains documentation, tutorials, and example models to help new users adopt the platform and build upon existing work.