Dear NeuroStars community,
with this post we would like to draw your attention to our recent pull request, based on this BIDS Extension Proposal, for extending BIDS to support computational network model descriptions and their simulation results.
For context, BIDS first arose as a standard to store MRI data, but has been continuously extended to support several other data types like MEG, EEG, and derivatives of the former. During a 3-day meeting of an international group of computational modellers at Princeton University and in a follow-up opinion paper the needs for a Computational Models BIDS extension were discussed. Briefly, goals are to support the inputs to a
computational network model (such as the network description), the outputs of modeling runs (like time series), but also the structure and underlying mathematical description and physical interpretation of the computational model itself. A big challenge for this is to balance expressivity against simplicity: to be as practical and simple as possible while capturing as wide a range of common use cases as possible.
We are therefore seeking community awareness and involvement to make sure the proposed data model suits a wide array of needs of computational modellers. Our goal is to provide an interoperable format that facilitates storage of computational models in a generic way such that it can be easily adopted by different platforms and simulators (like NEST, The Virtual Brain, or the Brain Dynamics Toolbox).
Please consider joining this effort if you would like to contribute and please do not hesitate to forward this message around you so that we reach as many modellers as possible.
Thanks in advance for your feedback and contributions!