Quantitative Single-Neuron Modeling: Competition 2008

Announcement of the 2008 spike time prediction challenge.

Submission for this competition is over. This announcement is here for reference only.

Why such a competition?

How well are single-cell properties reproduced by the present-day neuronal models? Recently, several labs have approached this question by assessing the quality of neuron models with respect to spike timing prediction or characteristic features of the voltage trace. So far, every modeler used his own preferred performance measure on his own data set. The ‘Quantitative Single-Neuron Modeling Competition’ offers a coherent framework to compare neuronal models with four different experiments on layer V pyramidal neurons of the somatosensory cortex under somatic and dendritic stimulation.

Participation

Participants can submit their prediction to one or more of the challenges A, B, C or D. Anyone can participate and any type of model is accepted.

Goal

This competition is an opportunity to bridge the gap between experimentalists and modelers (are there modelers who always dreamed of testing their theoretical model, and experimentalists who wondered which model to use for their specific case?). The ‘Quantitative Single-Neuron Modeling Competition’ is an invitation to compare your methods and models to those of other people in the field. With good participation, the outcome of this competition will be of great interest to both experimentalists and network modelers.

Prizes

The prizes are given upon the disclosure of the model used.

• 1st prize: The Swiss Single-Neuron Modeling Award ( 10 000 CHF*) is given to the participant(s) providing the best performance in at least 2 of the challenges.
• 2nd prize: The EPFL-Brain Mind Institute Neuron Modeling Award ( 500 CHF*) is given to the participant(s) providing best overall performance in one of the challenges A, B, C or D.

* Members of EPFL can participate but are not eligible to the monetary reward. In case of a tie for any of the prizes, the amount is divided in equal parts.

Important Dates

• February 15th 2008 : submission deadline.
• March 3rd-4th 2008 : Presentation of the results at the Data sharing and modeling challenges in neuroscience taking place during Cosyne 2008 meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Description

This year, the competition applies only to one neuron type. All of the experiments used in the challenges below are from layer 5 pyramidal cells of the somatosensory cortex of young rats.