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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond
Published on: June 24, 2015
Impact of weak excitatory synapses on chaotic transients in a diffusively coupled Morris-Lecar neuronal network
Jacopo Lafranceschina1, Renate Wackerbauer1
1Department of Physics, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5920, USA.
Abstract:
Spatiotemporal chaos collapses to either a rest state or a propagating pulse solution in a ring network of diffusively coupled, excitable Morris-Lecar neurons. Weak excitatory synapses can increase the Lyapunov exponent, expedite the collapse, and promote the collapse to the rest state rather than the pulse state. A single traveling pulse solution may no longer be asymptotic for certain combinations of network topology and (weak) coupling strengths, and initiate spatiotemporal chaos. Multiple pulses can cause chaos initiation due to diffusive and synaptic pulse-pulse interaction. In the presence of chaos initiation, intermittent spatiotemporal chaos exists until typically a collapse to the rest state.
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