Multi-Stability and Pattern-Selection in Oscillatory Networks with Fast Inhibition and Electrical Synapses
PLoS ONE. 2008-11-27; 3(11): e3830
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003830
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1. PLoS One. 2008;3(11):e3830. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003830. Epub 2008 Nov 27.
Multi-stability and pattern-selection in oscillatory networks with fast
inhibition and electrical synapses.
Bem T(1), Meyrand P, Branchereau P, Hallam J.
Author information:
(1)Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of
Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
A model or hybrid network consisting of oscillatory cells interconnected by
inhibitory and electrical synapses may express different stable activity patterns
without any change of network topology or parameters, and switching between the
patterns can be induced by specific transient signals. However, little is known
of properties of such signals. In the present study, we employ numerical
simulations of neural networks of different size composed of relaxation
oscillators, to investigate switching between in-phase (IP) and anti-phase (AP)
activity patterns. We show that the time windows of susceptibility to switching
between the patterns are similar in 2-, 4- and 6-cell fully-connected networks.
Moreover, in a network (N = 4, 6) expressing a given AP pattern, a stimulus with
a given profile consisting of depolarizing and hyperpolarizing signals sent to
different subpopulations of cells can evoke switching to another AP pattern.
Interestingly, the resulting pattern encodes the profile of the switching
stimulus. These results can be extended to different network architectures.
Indeed, relaxation oscillators are not only models of cellular pacemakers,
bursting or spiking, but are also analogous to firing-rate models of neural
activity. We show that rules of switching similar to those found for relaxation
oscillators apply to oscillating circuits of excitatory cells interconnected by
electrical synapses and cross-inhibition. Our results suggest that incoming
information, arriving in a proper time window, may be stored in an oscillatory
network in the form of a specific spatio-temporal activity pattern which is
expressed until new pertinent information arrives.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003830
PMCID: PMC2584369
PMID: 19043586 [Indexed for MEDLINE]