import nest
from matplotlib.pylab import *

Auto- and crosscorrelation functions for spike trains.

A time bin of size tbin is centered around the time difference it represents. If the correlation function is calculated for tau in [-tau_max, tau_max], the pair events contributing to the left-most bin are those for which tau in [-tau_max-tbin/2, tau_max+tbin/2) and so on.

Correlate two spike trains with each other assumes spike times to be ordered in time. tau > 0 means spike2 is later than spike1

tau_max: maximum time lag in ms correlation function tbin: bin size spike1: first spike train [tspike...] spike2: second spike train [tspike...]

def corr_spikes_sorted(spike1, spike2, tbin, tau_max, h):
    tau_max_i = int(tau_max / h)
    tbin_i = int(tbin / h)

    cross = zeros(int(2 * tau_max_i / tbin_i + 1), 'd')

    j0 = 0

    for spki in spike1:
        j = j0
        while j < len(spike2) and spike2[j] - spki < -tau_max_i - tbin_i / 2.0:
            j += 1
        j0 = j

        while j < len(spike2) and spike2[j] - spki < tau_max_i + tbin_i / 2.0:
            cross[int(
                (spike2[j] - spki + tau_max_i + 0.5 * tbin_i) / tbin_i)] += 1.0
            j += 1

    return cross

nest.ResetKernel()

h = 0.1             # Computation step size in ms
T = 100000.0        # Total duration
delta_tau = 10.0
tau_max = 100.0
pc = 0.5
nu = 100.0

nest.SetKernelStatus({'local_num_threads': 1, 'resolution': h,
                      'overwrite_files': True, 'grng_seed': 0})

mg = nest.Create('mip_generator')
nest.SetStatus(mg, {'rate': nu, 'p_copy': pc})

cd = nest.Create('correlation_detector')
nest.SetStatus(cd, {'tau_max': tau_max, 'delta_tau': delta_tau})

sd = nest.Create('spike_detector')
nest.SetStatus(sd, {'withtime': True,
                    'withgid': True, 'time_in_steps': True})

pn1 = nest.Create('parrot_neuron')
pn2 = nest.Create('parrot_neuron')

nest.Connect(mg, pn1)
nest.Connect(mg, pn2)
nest.Connect(pn1, sd)
nest.Connect(pn2, sd)

nest.SetDefaults('static_synapse', {'weight': 1.0, 'receptor_type': 0})
nest.Connect(pn1, cd)

nest.SetDefaults('static_synapse', {'weight': 1.0, 'receptor_type': 1})
nest.Connect(pn2, cd)

nest.Simulate(T)

n_events = nest.GetStatus(cd)[0]['n_events']
n1 = n_events[0]
n2 = n_events[1]

lmbd1 = (n1 / (T - tau_max)) * 1000.0
lmbd2 = (n2 / (T - tau_max)) * 1000.0

h = 0.1
tau_max = 100.0  # ms correlation window
t_bin = 10.0  # ms bin size

spikes = nest.GetStatus(sd)[0]['events']['senders']

sp1 = find(spikes[:] == 4)
sp2 = find(spikes[:] == 5)

cross = corr_spikes_sorted(sp1, sp2, t_bin, tau_max, h)

print("Crosscorrelation:")
print(cross)
print("Sum of crosscorrelation:")
print(sum(cross))