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MyoGen

The modular and extensible simulation toolkit for neurophysiology

Getting Started · Examples · API Reference

Overview

MyoGen is a modular and extensible neuromuscular simulation framework for generating physiologically grounded motor-unit activity, muscle force, and surface EMG signals.

It supports end-to-end modeling of the neuromuscular pathway — from descending neural drive and spinal motor-neuron dynamics to muscle activation and bioelectric signal formation at the electrode level. MyoGen is designed for algorithm validation, hypothesis-driven research, and education, providing configurable building blocks that can be combined and extended independently.

Highlights

  • 🧬 Biophysically inspired neuron models — NEURON-based motor neurons with validated calcium dynamics and membrane properties.
  • 🎯 Everything is inspectable — complete access to every motor unit, spike time, and fiber location for rigorous algorithm testing.
  • ⚡️ Vectorized & parallel — multi-core CPU processing with NumPy/Numba vectorization for fast computation.
  • 🔬 End-to-end simulation — from motor-unit recruitment to high-density surface EMG in a single framework.
  • 📊 Reproducible science — deterministic random seeds and standardized Neo Block outputs for exact replication.
  • 📦 NWB export — optional export to Neurodata Without Borders for data sharing via DANDI.
  • 🧰 Comprehensive toolkit — surface EMG, intramuscular EMG, force generation, and spinal-network modeling.

Head to Getting Started to install MyoGen and run your first simulation, browse the Examples gallery, or dive into the API Reference.

How to cite

If you use MyoGen in your research, please cite:

@article{simpetru_molinari_2026_myogen,
  title   = {MyoGen: Unified Biophysical Modeling of Human Neuromotor Activity and Resulting Signals},
  author  = {S{\^i}mpetru, Raul C. and Molinari, Ricardo G. and Rohlf, Devon R. and
             Batichotti, Rebeka L. and Watanabe, Renato N. and
             Elias, Leonardo A. and Del Vecchio, Alessandro},
  journal = {bioRxiv},
  note    = {preprint},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.64898/2026.01.01.697284},
  url     = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.01.697284}
}

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — see the issue tracker to report a bug or propose a feature.

License

MyoGen is released under the AGPL-3.0-or-later license.