neuron CurrentlyAccessedSection Geometry TopologySections are unbranched lengths of continuous cable connected together to form a neuron. Sections can be connected to form any tree-shaped structure but loops are not permitted. (You may, however, develop membrane mechanisms, such as electrical gap junctions which do not have the loop restriction. But be aware that the electrical current flows through such connections are calculated by a modified euler method instead of the more numerically robust fully implicit/crank-nicholson methods)
Do not confuse sections with segments. Sections are divided into segments of equal length for numerical simulation purposes (see nseg ). NEURON uses segments to represent the electrical circuit shown below.
Such segments are similar to compartments in compartmental modeling programs.
Section L diam3d pt3dchange setSpineArea Ra diam_changed pt3dclear spine3d arc3d distance pt3dconst x3d area getSpineArea pt3dinsert y3d define_shape n3d pt3dremove z3d diam pt3dadd riSection geometry is used to compute the area and axial resistance of each segment.
There are two ways to specify section geometry: 1) The stylized method simply specifies parameters for length and diameter. 2) The 3-D method specifies a section's shape, orientation, and location in three dimensions.
Choose the stylized method if the notions of cable length and diameter are authoritative and where 3-d shape is irrelevant. For plotting purposes, length and diameter will be used to generate 3-d info automatically for a stylized straight cylinder. (see define_shape )
Choose the 3-D method if the shape comes from 3-d reconstruction data or if your 3-d visualization is paramount. This method makes the 3-d info authoritative and automatically determines the abstract cable's length and diameter. With this method, you may change a section's length/diameter only by changing it's 3-d info. (but see pt3dconst )
In the stylized specification, the shape model used for a section is
a sequence of right circular cylinders of length, L/nseg, with diameter
given by the diam range variable at the center of each segment.
The area of a segment is PI*diam*L/nseg (micron2) and the half-segment axial
resistance is .01*Ra*(L/2/nseg)/(PI*(diam/2)^2). The .01 factor is necessary
to convert ohm-cm micron/micron2 to MegOhms. Ends of cylinders are not
counted in the area and, in fact, the areas are very close to those of
truncated cones as long as the diameter does not change too much.
execute following example
Note that the area (and length) of the 0,1 terminal ends is equal to 0 and the axial resistance is the sum of the adjacent half-segment resistances between segment and parent segment. Such, niceties allow the spatial discretization error to be proportional tocreate a access a nseg = 10 Ra = 100 L=1000 diam(0:1)=10:100 for (x) print x, diam(x), area(x), PI*diam(x)*L/nseg, ri(x), .01*Ra*(L/2/nseg)/(PI*(diam(x)/2)^2)
(1/nseg)^2. However, for second order correctness,
all point processes must be located at the center of the segments or at the
ends and all branches should be connected at the ends or centers of segments.
Note that if one increases nseg by a factor of 3, old centers are preserved.
For single compartment simulations it is most convenient to choose a membrane area of 100 micron2 so that point process currents (nanoamps) are equivalent to density currents (milliamps/cm2).
Also note that a single compartment of length = diameter has the same effective area as that of a sphere of the same diameter.
Sections connected to its 1 end (sections b, c, d) get drawn from left to right. Sections descended from the 0 end (section e) of the root get drawn from right to left.
Especially note the diameter pattern of section c whose "1" end is connected to the "b" parent. You don't have to understand this if you always connect the "0" end to the parent.
create a, b, c, d, e
connect b(0), a(1)
connect c(1), b(1)
connect d(0), b(1)
connect e(0), a(0)
forall nseg=20
forall L=100
forall diam(0:1) = 10:40
objref s
s = new Shape()
s.show(0)
a s.color(2)
topology()
finitialize()
forall {
print secname()
for i=0,n3d()-1 print i, x3d(i), y3d(i), z3d(i), diam3d(i)
}
If you change the diameter or length, the Shape instances are automatically redrawn or when doNotify() is called. Segment area and axial resistance will be automatically recomputed prior to their use.
Under some circumstances, involving nonlinearly varying diameters across
a section,
at first sight surprising results can occur
when the stylized method is used and a Shape instance is created.
This is because under a define_shape() with no pre-existing
3-d points in a section, a number of 3-d points is created equal to
the number of segments plus the end areas. When 3-d points exist,
they determine the calculation of L, diam, area, and ri. Thus diam
can change slightly merely due to shape creation. When
L and diam are changed, there is first a change to the 3-d points and
then L and diam are updated to reflect the actual values of these
3-d points. Due to multiple interpolation effects, specifying a nonlinearly
varying diam will, in general, not give exactly the same diameter values as the
case where no 3-d information exists. This effect is illustrated in the
following example
execute following example
create a
access a
nseg=3
{Ra=100 L=100}
diam=10
diam(.34:.66) = 20:20
for(x) print x*L, diam(x), area(x), ri(x)
s = new Shape()
s.show(0)
for i=0, n3d()-1 print i, arc3d(i), diam3d(i)
print "L=", L
for(x) print x*L, diam(x), area(x), ri(x)
The shape model used for a section when the pt3d list is non-empty
is that of a sequence of truncated cones in which the pt3d points define
the location and diameter of the ends. From this sequence of points,
the effective area, diameter, and resistance is computed for each segment
via a trapezoidal integration across the segment length. This takes
into account the extra area due to sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2) for fast changing
diameters (even degenerate cones of 0 length can be specified, ie. two
points with same coordinates but different diameters)
but no attempt is made to deal with centroid curvature effects
on the area. Note that the number of 3d points used to describe a shape
has nothing to do with nseg and does not affect simulation speed.
(Although, of course, it does affect how fast one can draw the shape)
create a
access a
Ra=100
nseg = 10
pt3dclear()
for i=0,30 {
x = PI*i/30
pt3dadd(200*sin(x), 200*cos(x), 0, 100*sin(4*x))
}
objref s
s = new Shape()
s.show(0)
print L
for (x) print x, diam(x), area(x), PI*diam(x)*L/nseg, ri(x), .01*Ra*(L/2/nseg)/(PI*(diam(x)/2)^2)
The following loads the pyramidal cell 3-d reconstruction from the demo directory of your neuron system. Notice that you can modify the length only if the pt3dconst mode is 1. execute following example
xopen("$(NEURONHOME)/demo/pyramid.nrn")
mode = 1
pt3dconst(mode)
objref s
s = new Shape()
s.action("dendrite_1[8] s.select()")
dendrite_1[8] s.color(2)
xpanel("Change Length")
xvalue("dendrite_1[8].L", "dendrite_1[8].L", 1)
xcheckbox("Can't change length", &mode, "pt3dconst(mode)")
xpanel()
If 3-D shape is not an issue it is sufficient to specify the section variables L (length in microns), Ra (axial resistivity in ohm-cm), and the range variable diam (diameter in microns).
A list of 3-D points with corresponding diameters describes the geometry of a given section.
Geometry
buffersize = pt3dclear()buffersize = pt3dclear(buffersize)
Geometry
pt3dadd(x,y,z,d)
Add the 3d location and diameter point at the end of the current pt3d
list. Assume that successive additions increase the arc length
monotonically. When pt3d points exist in a section they are used
to compute diam and L. When diam or L are changed and pt3dconst()==0
the 3-d info is changed to be consistent with the new values of
L and diam. (Note: When L is changed, diam_shape() should be executed
to adjust the 3-d info so that branches appear connected.)
The existence of a spine at this point is signaled
by a negative value for d.
Geometry
pt3dconst(0)pt3dconst(1)pt3dconst is set at 0, newly assigned values for d and L will
automatically update pre-existing 3d information.
pt3dconst returns its previous state on each call. Its original value is 0.
Note that the diam information transferred to the 3d point information
comes from the current diameter of the segments and does not change
the number of 3d points. Thus if there are a lot of 3d points the
shape will appear as a string of uniform diameter cylinders each of
length L/nseg. ie. after transfer diam3d(i) == diam(arc3d(i)).
Then, after a call to an internal function such as area() or
finitialize(), the 3d point info will be used to determine the values
of the segment diameters.
Because of the three separate interpolations: hoc range spec -> segment diameter -> 3d point diam -> segment diameter, the final values of the segment diameter may be different from the case where 3d info does not exist.
Because of the surprises noted above, when using 3d points
consider treating them as the authoritative diameter info and set
pt3dconst(1).
3d points are automatically generated when one uses
the nrniv Shape class. If you want the flexibility of being able
to specify 3d diameter using range variable notation
(eg diam(0:1) = 10:20) you will need to experiment with nseg and
n3d() in order to understand the exact consequences of interpolation.
Geometry
pt3dinsert(i, x, y, z, diam)
Geometry
pt3dremove(i)
Geometry
pt3dchange(i, x, y, z, diam)pt3dchange(i, diam)leaves the pt3d info unchanged.pt3dchange(5, x3d(5), y3d(5), z3d(5), (spine3d(5)+1)/2 * diam3d(5))
Geometry
n3d()
Geometry
x3d
Geometry
y3d(i)
Geometry
z3d(i)
Geometry
diam3d(i)diam3d(i) will always be positive even
if there is a spine at the ith point.
Geometry
arc3d(i)arc3d(n3d()-1) == L
Geometry
spine3d(i)
Geometry
setSpineArea(area)setSpineArea merely adds to
the total area of a segment.
Geometry
getSpineArea()
Geometry
define_shape()Note: This may not work right when a branch is connected to the interior of a parent section 0<x<1, rather only when it is connected to the parent at 0 or 1.
Geometry
area(x)area(0) and area(1) = 0
Geometry
ri(x)
will print the arc length, the segment area at that arc length, and the resistance along that length for the sectionfor (x) print x, area(x), ri(x)
x.
Geometry
distance() or distance(0, x) len = distance(x) or len = distance(1, x)distance() with no arguments
distance(x) (0<=x<=1)
To overcome the old initialization restriction, distance(0, x) can be used to set the origin. Note that distance is measured from the centers of segments.
Geometry
diam_changed
This is not needed since Ra is now a section variable
and automatically sets diam_changed whenever any sections Ra is
changed.
Changing diam or any pt3d value will cause it to be set automatically.
GeometryLength of a section in microns.
GeometryDiameter range variable of a section in microns.
Geometry
Raforall Ra=35.4
Prior to 1/6/95 the default value for Ra was 34.5. Presently it is
35.4.