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NeuroSims

Interactive simulations for visualizing neuroscience concepts

Each simulation runs in the browser, with nothing to install. They were built for Introduction to Neuroscience (PSB 2000) at Florida State University, and any teacher or student is welcome to use them.

Cells of the Nervous System

The building blocks: what neurons look like, how their shapes differ, and how a signal travels through each one. A good place to start.

Multipolar, bipolar, pseudounipolar and unipolar neurons side by side

Types of Neurons

Compare multipolar, bipolar, pseudounipolar and unipolar neurons: count the processes leaving the cell body and watch which way a signal travels through each.

Neurophysiology

How a single neuron fires, and how it passes the message to the next one. Start with the action potential, then move to the synapse.

Cartoon membrane with sodium and potassium ions and a banana showing the voltage

The Salty Banana

A step-by-step story of the action potential: resting potential, threshold, spike, refractory period, and myelin.

 Hand-drawn action potential graph with the membrane zoomed in to show open ion channels

The Action Potential Graph

Click anywhere on the action potential curve to zoom in on the membrane and see which sodium and potassium channels are open at that moment.

 Myelinated axon with nodes of Ranvier and current spreading between them

Saltatory Conduction

Why the action potential seems to "jump" from node to node along a myelinated axon, and what happens when myelin is damaged.

 Two neurons with vesicles releasing neurotransmitter across the synaptic gap onto receptors

Exploring Synapses

Release a neurotransmitter, watch it cross the gap, and see how receptors and drugs change the receiving cell.

 Brain diagram showing where a neurotransmitter's neurons start and where their fibers travel

Neurotransmitter Pathways

Pick a neurotransmitter and watch where it starts in the brain, where its fibers travel, what they do, and what happens when they go wrong.

 Brain diagram showing where a neurotransmitter's neurons start and where their fibers travel

Dopamine: Movement vs. Motivation

Trace dopamine's two big pathways, one for movement and one for reward, and see what happens when each goes wrong.

 Brain diagram showing where a neurotransmitter's neurons start and where their fibers travel

Clearing the Synapse

See the three ways a synapse gets cleaned up after a signal: reuptake back into the neuron, enzymes breaking the transmitter apart, and diffusion away from the gap. Then see what happens when a drug blocks one of them.

 Brain diagram showing where a neurotransmitter's neurons start and where their fibers travel

Receptor Mechanisms

See the three ways a synapse gets cleaned up after a signal: reuptake back into the neuron, enzymes breaking the transmitter apart, and diffusion away from the gap. Then see what happens when a drug blocks one of them.

Developmental Neuroscience

How the brain builds and refines its wiring from birth through adolescence.

Network of yellow neurons connected by synapses, with green microglia

Synaptic Pruning

Watch a young brain overproduce synapses, then keep the ones experience uses and remove the rest.

More modules coming soon. Ideas for a topic? Suggest one through GitHub Issues.