ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neuroinform.
Macular: a multi-scale simulation platform for the retina and the primary visual system
Provisionally accepted
Bruno Cessac1,2*
Erwan Demairy1,2J´erˆome Emonet1,2Evgenia Kartsaki1,2Thibaud Kloczko1,2Cˆome Le Breton1,2Nicolas Niclausse1,2Selma Souihel1Jean-Luc Szpyrka1,2Julien Wintz1,2- 1Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), Rocquencourt, France
- 2Centre Inria d'Universite Cote d'Azur, Sophia Antipolis, France
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We developed Macular, a simulation platform with a graphical interface, designed to produce \textit{in silico} experiment scenarios for the retina and the primary visual system. A scenario consists of generating a three-dimensional structure with interconnected layers, each layer corresponding to a type of “cell” in the retina or visual cortex. The cells can correspond to neurons or more complex structures (such as cortical columns). The inputs are arbitrary videos. The user can use the cells and synapses provided with the software, or create their own using a graphical interface where they enter the constituent equations in text format (e.g., LaTeX). They also create the three-dimensional structure via the graphical interface. Macular then \textit{automatically} generates and compiles the C++ code and generates the simulation interface. This allows the user to view the input video and the three-dimensional structure in layers. It also allows the user to select cells and synapses in each layer and view the activity of their state variables. Finally, the user can adjust the phenomenological parameters of the cells or synapses via the interface. We provide several example scenarios, corresponding to published articles, including an example of a retino-cortical model. Macular was designed for neurobiologists and modelers, specialists in the primary visual system, who want to test hypotheses \textit{in silico} without the need for programming. By design, this tool allows natural or altered conditions (pharmacology, pathology, development) to be simulated.
Keywords: graphical user interface, In silico experiments, Numerical Simulations, Primary visual system, Retina
Received: 16 Oct 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cessac, Demairy, Emonet, Kartsaki, Kloczko, Le Breton, Niclausse, Souihel, Szpyrka and Wintz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bruno Cessac
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