1. Setting up Python and Brian

To solve the exercises you need to install Python, Brian2 and the neurodynex package. The installation procedure we described here focuses on the tools we use in the classroom sessions at EPFL. For that reason we additionally set up a conda environment (which we call bmnn below) and install Jupyter .

1.2. Alternative procedure: Using python and pip

If you already have Python installed and prefer using PIP, you can get the most recent versions of this repository as a pypi package called neurodynex.

To install the exercises using pip simply execute (the --upgrade flag will overwrite existing installations with the newest versions):

pip install --upgrade jupyter
pip install --upgrade neurodynex

Note

Should you want to run Spyder to work on the exercises, and you’re running into problems (commonly, after running conda install spyder you can not start spyder due to an error related to numpy), try the following:

# create a new conda environment with spyder and the exercises
conda create --name neurodynex -c brian-team -c epfl-lcn neurodynex spyder

# activate the environment
source activate neurodynex

This creates a new conda environment (here is more information on conda environments) in which you can use spyder together with the exercises.