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A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions
Published on: March 25, 2014
Complex evolution of spike patterns during burst propagation through feed-forward networks.
Jun-nosuke Teramae1, Tomoki Fukai
1Laboratory for Neural Circuit Theory, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Hirosawa 2-1, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan. teramae@brain.riken.jp
Biological Cybernetics
|August 8, 2008
Summary
This study shows that spike bursts in neural networks can propagate stably without fixed profiles, unlike single spikes. Burst timing changes cyclically or irregularly, depending on neuron properties and network coupling.
Area of Science:
- Computational neuroscience
- Neural network dynamics
- Information processing in the brain
Background:
- Stable signal transmission is vital for brain information processing.
- Synfire-chains (feed-forward networks of spiking neurons) propagate single spikes with fixed profiles.
- Previous research focused on single spike propagation, not bursts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the stable propagation of spike bursts in feed-forward networks.
- To understand how burst spike timings change during propagation.
- To identify conditions under which bursts lose fixed profiles.
Main Methods:
- Studied spike burst propagation in feed-forward networks of excitable bursting neurons.
- Analyzed spike timing shifts during propagation.
- Applied a method analogous to phase response analysis for limit-cycle oscillators.
Main Results:
- Spike bursts can propagate stably without converging to fixed profiles.
- Burst spike timings exhibit cyclic or irregular changes during propagation.
- Changes in burst timing depend on intrinsic neuronal properties and network coupling strength.
Conclusions:
- Burst propagation differs fundamentally from single spike propagation in feed-forward networks.
- The dynamic nature of burst timing is influenced by network parameters.
- A novel analysis based on timing shifts can predict when bursts lose fixed profiles.
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