如何以二进制格式存储来自 NEST 模拟器的记录数据？

Question

I am trying to write spikedetector data into.gdf files in binary format, but I cannot.

I am setting the binary param of the spikedetector to True (I checked it using nest.GetStatus ) but files are written in ASCII:

neurons = nest.Create('iaf_psc_alpha', 5)
sr = nest.Create('spike_recorder')
nest.Connect(neurons, sr)
sr.SetStatus({'binary': True})

I am using NEST 2.18

Answer 1

The documentation for NEST 2.18 and 2.20 is misleading in this respect. The binary option has no effect and should have been removed long ago (it sets the ios::binary flag when opening the file, but that has no significant consequences).

If you want to write spikes in binary format, you need to switch to NEST 3.0 (not released at time of writing but available in master ) and use the sionlib recording backend by setting the recorder's record_to property:

neurons = nest.Create('iaf_psc_alpha', 5)
sr = nest.Create('spike_recorder')
nest.Connect(neurons, sr)
sr.SetStatus({'record_to': 'sionlib'})

UPDATE: NEST 3.0 is released now and includes a whole guide for Recording from simulations in the docs. The mentioned binary sionlib backend is one of the sections.