Guiding the modeller: organizing and selecting experimental data for single cell models using the CoCoDat database

Collating, organizing and selecting quantitative experimental data are time-consuming tasks necessary for building and constraining biophysically realistic neuronal models. The CoCoDat (Collation of Cortical Data) database has been designed as an advanced environment for storing, organizing and retrieving detailed, uninterpreted quantitative data on morphology, electrophysiology and connectivity from the published literature according to neurophysiological concepts. All experimental data are linked to exact bibliographical references and detailed records of procedures used in the experiments that produced the data. We demonstrate the usefulness of CoCoDat for implementation of an example model of a layer 5 pyramidal neuron from the rat barrel cortex. c © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.