Propagation of Synfire Activity in Cortical Networks — a Dynamical Systems Approach

Variability and Corresponding Amplitude–Velocity Relation of Activity Propagating in One-Dimensional Neural Cultures

“…Generally, they predict that propagating activity in feedforward networks tends either to synchronize within Ͻ10 synaptic hops or to die away. The velocity of propagation of a synchronized activity wave may vary because it depends not only on the synaptic strength (Arnoldi et al 1999;Wennekers 2000) but also on the firing threshold (Arndt et al 1995). In addition, the variation of velocity might result from a variation in the synchrony, which depends on the number of neurons per pool (Diesmann et al 1999) and on the level of synchrony of the initial conditions (Diesmann et al 1999;Gewaltig et al 2001).…”

“…These models show that the neurons may support stable fronts (Bressloff 1999(Bressloff , 2000Ermentrout 1998;Golomb and Ermentrout 2002;Kistler 2000;Osan and Ermentrout 2002;Osan et al 2004). Synfire chain models describe propagation of activity through feedforward networks and predict that synchronization of the activity is required for stable propagation (Abeles 1991;Arndt et al 1995;Gewaltig et al 2001), as well as a minimal neuronal density (Diesmann et al 1999). In these models, however, the neurons usually support only a few discrete stable propagation modes with a given amplitude and velocity.…”