Spike-timing dynamics of neuronal groups

A neuronal network inspired by the anatomy of the cerebral cortex was simulated to study the self-organization of spiking neurons into neuronal groups. The network consisted of 100 000 reentrantly interconnected neurons exhibiting known types of cortical firing patterns, receptor kinetics, short-term plasticity and long-term spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), as well as a distribution of axonal conduction delays. The dynamics of the network allowed us to study the fine temporal structure of emerging firing patterns with millisecond resolution. We found that the interplay between STDP and conduction delays gave rise to the spontaneous formation of neuronal groups--sets of strongly connected neurons capable of firing time-locked, although not necessarily synchronous, spikes. Despite the noise present in the model, such groups repeatedly generated patterns of activity with millisecond spike-timing precision. Exploration of the model allowed us to characterize various group properties, including spatial distribution, size, growth, rate of birth, lifespan, and persistence in the presence of synaptic turnover. Localized coherent input resulted in shifts of receptive and projective fields in the model similar to those observed in vivo.