auryn::RateChecker Class Reference

A Checker class that tracks population firing rate as a moving average and breaks a run if it goes out of bound. More...

#include <RateChecker.h>

Inheritance diagram for auryn::RateChecker:

Collaboration diagram for auryn::RateChecker:

Public Member Functions
	RateChecker (SpikingGroup *source, AurynFloat min, AurynFloat max, AurynFloat tau=1.0)
virtual	~RateChecker ()
virtual bool	propagate ()
virtual AurynFloat	get_property ()
AurynFloat	get_rate ()
void	set_rate (AurynFloat r)
void	reset ()
Public Member Functions inherited from auryn::Checker
	Checker ()
virtual	~Checker ()

Protected Attributes
SpikingGroup *	src

Detailed Description

A Checker class that tracks population firing rate as a moving average and breaks a run if it goes out of bound.

This class should be specified at least once with all plastic runs to ensure that expoding firing rates or a silent network does not get simulated needlessly for hours.

The different constructors allow to specify different min and max firing rates to guard against too active or quiet networks. Also the timeconstant (tau) over which the moving rate average is computed online can be specified. Allow for 3-5 x tau for the estimate to settle to its steady state value. To avoid accidental breaking of a run due to this effect, at initialization the rate estimate is assumed to be the mean of the min and max. Note further that this checker computes population averages over the fraction of a neuron group which is simulated on a particular rank. In highly parallel simulations when the number of neurons per rank is very the rate estimate might have a high variance accross ranks. If highly parallel simulation is anticipated tau should be chosen longer to avoid spurious breaks caused by a noisy rate estimate or a different checker which computes the rate of entire population (after a MINDELAY s minimal delay) should be used.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

RateChecker()

RateChecker::RateChecker	(	SpikingGroup *	source,
		AurynFloat	min,
		AurynFloat	max,
		AurynFloat	tau = 1.0
	)

A more elaborate constructor specifying also a minimum rate to guard against silent networks.

Parameters

source	the source group to monitor.
min	the minimum firing rate below which the Checker signals a break of the simulation.
max	the maximum firing rate above which the Checker signals a break of the simulation.
tau	the time constant over which to compute the moving average of the rate.

                                                                                              : Checker()
{
        src = source;
        init(min,max,tau);
}

~RateChecker()

RateChecker::~RateChecker ( )

virtual

{
}

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Member Function Documentation

get_property()

AurynFloat RateChecker::get_property ( )

virtual

The query function required for internal use.

{
        return get_rate();
}

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get_rate()

AurynFloat RateChecker::get_rate

(

)

Reads out the current rate estimate.

{
        return state;
}

propagate()

bool RateChecker::propagate ( )

virtual

The propagate function required for internal use.

Implements auryn::Checker.

{
        state *= decay_multiplier;
        state += 1.*src->get_spikes()->size()/timeconstant/size;
        if ( state>popmin && state<popmax ) return true;
        else  return false;
}

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reset()

void RateChecker::reset

(

)

{
        set_rate((popmax+popmin)/2);
}

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set_rate()

void RateChecker::set_rate

(

AurynFloat

r

)

Sets the current rate estimate – for instance to provide a reasonable guess upon init. ( per default this is (max+min)/2.)

{
        state = r;
}

Member Data Documentation

src

SpikingGroup* auryn::RateChecker::src

protected

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The documentation for this class was generated from the following files:

• /home/zenke/auryn/src/auryn/RateChecker.h
• /home/zenke/auryn/src/auryn/RateChecker.cpp