Intro & user manual#

Yet another graph library?#

It is not ;)

This library is based on existing graph libraries (such as graph_tool, igraph, networkx, and possibly soon SNAP) and acts as a convenient interface to build various networks from efficient and verified algorithms.

Moreover, it also acts as an interface between those graph libraries and the NEST simulator.

Documentation structure#

For users that are in a hurry, you can go directly to the Tutorial section. For more specific and detailed examples, several topics are then detailed separately in the following pages:

Note

This library provides many tools which will (or not) be loaded on startup depending on the python packages available on your computer. The default behaviour of those tools is set in the ~/.nngt/nngt.conf file (see Configuration). Moreover, to see all potential messages related to the import of those tools, you can use the logging function of NNGT, either by setting the log_level value to INFO, or by setting log_to_file to True, and having a look at the log file in ~/.nngt/log/.

Description#

The graph objects#

Neural networks are described by four graph classes which inherit from the main class of the chosen graph library (gt.Graph, igraph.Graph or networkx.DiGraph):

  • Graph: base for simple topological graphs with no spatial structure, nor biological properties
  • SpatialGraph: subclass for spatial graphs without biological properties
  • Network: subclass for topological graphs with biological properties (to interact with NEST)
  • SpatialNetwork: subclass with spatial and biological properties (to interact with NEST)

Using these objects, the user can access to the topological structure of the network (including the connections’ type – inhibitory or excitatory – and its weight, which is always positive)

Warning

This object should never be directly modified through the initial library’s methods but always using those of NNGT. If, for some reason, you should directly use the methods from the graph library on the object, make sure they do not modify its structure; any modification performed from a method other than those of Graph subclasses will lead to undefined behaviour!

Additional properties#

Nodes/neurons are defined by a unique index which can be used to access their properties and those of the connections between them.

The graph objects can have other attributes, such as:

  • shape for SpatialGraph and SpatialNetwork, which describes the spatial delimitations of the neurons’ environment (e.g. many in vitro culture are contained in circular dishes),
  • population, for Network, which contains informations on the various groups of neurons that exist in the network (for instance inhibitory and excitatory neurons can be grouped together),
  • connections which stores the informations about the synaptic connections between the neurons.

Graph-theoretical models#

Several classical graphs are efficiently implemented and the generation procedures are detailed in the documentation.

Known bugs#

  • Graph I/O confirmed not working with graph_tool <= 2.19 when using edge attributes. Confirmed working with graph_tool >= 2.22.
  • Plotting SpatialGraph with networkx does not work.