This is the readme for the model associated with the paper: Goldman MS, Golowasch J, Marder E, Abbott LF (2001) Global structure, robustness, and modulation of neuronal models. J Neurosci 21:5229-38 This code was supplied by Mark Goldman. The raw code is in Microsoft Visual C++. I also have included a compiled .exe file for those don't use Visual C++; you can change conductance values and compartment geometry with the interface, but you won't be able to change channel kinetics because these are hardwired in the code. It takes some interpretation, as I was building my own mini-Neuron version when i wrote it and there are many parts of the interface that actually are placeholders, i.e. you can click all you like on the Sensors or the Synapses, but they don't actually do anything! (It was many years ago, but I think it does run 2 compartments successfully). It uses an adaptive step size algorithm that was tailored for the stg simulations: This is what the minimum and maximum step sizes were used for, and they dramatically speed up the simulations because there are rapid dynamics during bursts and spikes, versus very slow changes in variables during interburst intervals. All bets are off if someone uses this for non-stg simulations. Some other idiosyncratic things are that it actually remembers the location of your windows on your screen (see documentation file for how to fix if they ever get screwed up). The main window is not used except for the File Menu. The "3 blind mice..." (see how they run...) window may need to be resized to show the graphs. The display tab can be used to add more graphs and change axes limits, and available variables can be added in code. Additional notes: 1) for the final data analysis, the identification of "silent, tonic, burst" is the "extracellular" characterization. As explained in the 2001 paper, however, I used the transmission estimate (also reported) to decide whether single-spikers were "tonic" vs. "1-spike bursts" (basically whether the spike rides on top of a slow calcium wave). 2) when loading in files or using the drop boxes to update things, one should always FIRST make the change(s), and then click "Apply" to make them active. This allowed me, online, to change sets of parameters as I explored the model and hopefully will be insightful for others. 3) Use the Windows file menus to read in the SavedCases corresponding to some of the figures in Goldman et al 2001 and Golowasch et al 2002. 4) It seems to produce an error after a run finishes on my new Windows 7 computer, but it does run all the way through successfully (i.e. you just can't run multiple files, like I could on my old operating system). 5) For (a little) more documentation, see Documentation.txt in the ZhengModel2 folder.