Bistability and Spatiotemporal Irregularity in Neuronal Networks with Nonlinear Synaptic Transmission

Gianluigi Mongillo, David Hansel, Carl van Vreeswijk
Physical Review Letters. 2012-04-10; 108(15):
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.108.158101

1. Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Apr 13;108(15):158101. doi:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.158101. Epub 2012 Apr 10.

Bistability and spatiotemporal irregularity in neuronal networks with nonlinear
synaptic transmission.

Mongillo G(1), Hansel D, van Vreeswijk C.

Author information:
(1)Laboratoire de Neurophysique et Physiologie, CNRS UMR 8119, Université Paris
Descartes, 75270 Paris cedex 06, France.

We present a mean-field theory for spiking networks operating in the balanced
excitation-inhibition regime, with synapses displaying short-term plasticity.
The theory reveals a novel mechanism for bistability which relies on the
nonlinearity of the synaptic interactions. As synaptic nonlinearity is mainly
controlled by the spiking rates, the different states are stabilized by
dynamically generated changes in the noise level. Thus, in both states, the
network operates in the fluctuation-driven regime, producing activity patterns
characterized by strong spatiotemporal irregularity.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.158101
PMID: 22587287 [Indexed for MEDLINE]