Emergence of Neuronal Synchronisation in Coupled Areas

Abstract

One of the most fundamental questions in the field of neuroscience is the emergence of synchronous behaviour in the brain, such as phase, anti-phase, and shift-phase synchronisation. In this work, we investigate how the connectivity between brain areas can influence the phase angle and the neuronal synchronisation. To do this, we consider brain areas connected by means of excitatory and inhibitory synapses, in which the neuron dynamics is given by the adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire model. Our simulations suggest that excitatory and inhibitory connections from one area to another play a crucial role in the emergence of these types of synchronisation. Thus, in the case of unidirectional interaction, we observe that the phase angles of the neurons in the receiver area depend on the excitatory and inhibitory synapses which arrive from the sender area. Moreover, when the neurons in the sender area are synchronised, the phase angle variability of the receiver area can be reduced for some conductance values between the areas. For bidirectional interactions, we find that phase and anti-phase synchronisation can emerge due to excitatory and inhibitory connections. We also verify, for a strong inhibitory-to-excitatory interaction, the existence of silent neuronal activities, namely a large number of excitatory neurons that remain in silence for a long time.

Keywords: coupled areas; excitatory and inhibitory connections; exponential adaptive integrate-and-fire model; neuronal activities; synchronisation.