Neural Query System: Data-mining from within the NEURON simulator

We have developed a simulation tool within the NEURON simulator to assist in organization, verification, and analysis of simulations. This tool, denominated Neural Query System (NQS), provides a relational database system, a query function based on the SELECT function of Structured Query Language, and data-mining tools. We show how NQS can be used to organize, manage, verify, and visualize parameters for both single cell and network simulations. We demonstrate an additional use of NQS to organize simulation output and relate outputs to parameters in a network model. The NQS software package is available at http://senselab. med.yale.edu/senselab/SimToolDB.