Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience

Professor Edmund T. Rolls

Software made available with Brain Computations and Connectivity (2023)






Cerebral Cortex




Emotion and Decision-Making




Memory, Attention, and Decision-Making


The following software is made available in association with:


Rolls, E. T. (2023) Brain Computations and Connectivity. Oxford University Press.


1. Neuronal Network Simulation Software and Exercises

Software written in Matlab (TM, Mathworks Inc) (and which also runs under GNU Octave which is available for free download; and which is also available in a version for Python) is described here that illustrates the operation of neuronal networks described in Brain Computations and Connectivity and the following books:

Rolls, E.T. (2016) Cerebral Cortex: Principles of Operation. Oxford University Press.

Rolls, E. T. (2014) Emotion and Decision-Making Explained. Oxford University Press.

Rolls, E. T. (2008) Memory, Attention, and Decision-Making: A Unifying Computational Neuroscience Approach. Oxford University Press.


A description of the operation of the software, and suggested exercises, are described in Brain Computations and Connectivity. The title of Appendix 4 is 'Simulation software for neuronal networks, and information analysis of neuronal encoding'. The software illustrates the operation of pattern association networks, autoassociation (attractor) networks, competitive networks, and self-organizing maps. Brain Computations and Connectivity provides background to the operation of these neuronal networks in Appendix 2 'Neuronal Network Models'.


The software available is as follows:

NeuronalNetworkSimulationSoftware.zip


2. Information theoretic analyses of single neuron and multiple neuron encoding. These analyses are decribed in Appendic C of Brain Computations and Connectivity, and the programs written in Matlab are introduced in Section D.7 and are available here: RollsNeuronalInformationSoftware.zip.


3. VisNet - a model of biologically plausible transform-invariant visual object recognition using unsupervised learning. This is described in Brain Computations and Connectivity Chapter 2. A tutorial version of VisNet described in Section D.6 and written in Matlab is available: VisNet Code. Nine objects already filtered for use with VisNet, and the image filtering software to filter more objects for use with VisNet are included. Please direct enquiries to Edmund.Rolls@oxcns.org.


4. Navigation in primates including humans. In connection with  Rolls,E.T. 2021 Neurons including hippocampal spatial view cells and navigation in primates including humans. Hippocampus 31: 593-611. doi: 10.1002/hipo.23324, programs in Matlab to simulate navigation using spatial view cells and videos can be obtained here. A video to illustrate navigation with spatial view cells is here.


5. Neocortical computation by pyramidal cells. In connection with Rolls,E.T. 2021 The connections of neocortical pyramidal cells can implement the learning of new categories, attractor memory, and top-down recall and attention. Brain Structure and Function 226: 2523-2536. doi: 10.1007/s00429-021-02347-z, programs in Matlab to illustrate the theory of computation by neocortical pyramidal cells can be obtained here.


6. Automated Anatomical Labelling Atlas 3 (AAL3v1).

Please send any suggested corrections or improvements to:

Edmund.Rolls@oxcns.org


7. Human Connectome Project MMP extended Atlas, HCPex.

Huang,C-C., Rolls, E. T., Feng,J. and Lin,C-P. (2021) An extended Human Connectome Project multimodal parcellation atlas of the human cortex and subcortical areas. Brain Structure and Function 227: 763-778. doi: 10.1007/s00429-021-02421-6. HCPex Atlas v1.1