A framework for simulating axon guidance

We present an open-L-systems-based framework for modeling, simulating and visualizing axon guidance. It enables efficient integrative simulation of the two concurrent processes involved in axon guidance-the process of the extracellular environment and that of the growing neuron having its axon guided towards the target area by different mechanisms-and the communication and interaction between them. We illustrate the framework with an axon guidance model we constructed and the graphical results we got, which describe the axon's development in its environmental context. The graphical results can be displayed on the computer screen animatedly. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.