Routine Name: setuptau Description: Sets up A and B tables of voltage-dependent gates based on generic equations describing the form of the tau (time constant) and minf (steady state activation) state constants. Usage: setuptau channel-element gate AA AB AC AD AF BA BB BC BD BF \ -size n -range min max channel-element This must be a tabgate or a tabchannel i.e. a voltage-dependent gate or channel with tabulated activation functions. gate The name of the gate (must be X, Y, or Z). AA-AF Coefficients A to F of the tau table (see below). BA-BF Coefficients A to F of the minf table (see below). -size n Number of divisions in the table (default = 3000). -range min max Range of the table (default: min = -0.100; max = 0.050). This routine makes it easy to set up the A and B tables of tabulated channels or gates (tabchannel or tabgate objects) when the equations describing the state constants tau and minf are of the form: y(x) = (A + B * x) / (C + exp((x + D) / F)) Many standard channels have tau and minf parameters that can be cast into this form. In these cases to set up the tables we can simply call setuptau with the parameter values as arguments to the function. Since there are both tau and minf variables, we use the coefficients AA-AF to refer to the tau variable and BA-BF to refer to the minf variable. setuptau calls the TABCREATE action of the tabchannel or tabgate to allocate tables with n divisions (n + 1 entries) representing x values from min to max. It then evalutes the functions at these points to fill the tables. tabgates have tables for the alpha and beta rate variables, so the tau and minf values are used to calculate alpha = minf/tau and beta = (1 - minf)/tau, and fill these tables. The gates of a tabchannel each have an A table that holds alpha values, and a B table that contains alpha + beta. These tables are filled with A = minf/tau and B = 1/tau. The tables are by default set up in "no interpolation" mode, which means that the process of finding the correct table value is simply a lookup operation. With 3000 divisions in the table (i.e. the table size is 3001) the lookup usually provides sufficient accuracy. If not, you can override this behavior; see the tabchannel documentation. The range of the activation variable is between -0.100 and 0.050 by default. This is adequate for most voltage-dependent channels, but can be overridden using the -range option. Example: see Scripts/neurokit/prototypes/newbulbchan.g Notes: For tabgate elements, which represent only a single gate, the "gate" argument is ignored, but it should still be given as X, Y, or Z. The setupalpha command is similar to setuptau, but uses the rate variables alpha and beta instead. If the tau and minf state constant of your channel cannot be described using the above equation, you must fill the tables with one of the other methods described in the tabchannel documentation, or The Book of GENESIS, Chapter 19 (2nd ed.). The state equation described above has a removable singularity when C = -1 at the point x = -D (which is, unfortunately, a common case). In this case the routine may generate inaccurate results due to roundoff errors. We STRONGLY RECOMMEND that if you must use a C value of -1 you check the resulting activation curves by using Neurokit (in the "Edit Channel" mode) to see if they look reasonable. If they do not then you will have to define the channel using a script function as mentioned above. Such a function will result in a slower setup time for the channel but will be much more accurate. See also: tabchannel, tabgate, setupalpha, tweakalpha, tweaktau, Tables