2012/04/27 by F. Lombardi, Fabrizio Lombardi, Lombardi, F. +11 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroscience and Neural Engineering #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.NC #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1204.6176
5 pages, 3 figures, to appear on Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2012/04/27 · arxiv updated 2012/04/30
Neuronal avalanches, measured in vitro and in vivo, exhibit a robust critical behaviour. Their temporal organization hides the presence of correlations. Here we present experimental measurements of the waiting time distribution between successive avalanches in the rat cortex in vitro. This exhibits a non-monotonic behaviour, not usually found in other natural processes. Numerical simulations provide evidence that this behaviour is a consequence of the alternation between states of high and low activity, named up and down states, leading to a balance between excitation and inhibition controlled by a single parameter. During these periods both the single neuron state and the network excitability level, keeping memory of past activity, are tuned by homeostatic mechanisms.