2021/04/06 by R. Janaki, Janaki, R., A. S. Vytheeswaran +1
Neuroscience · #Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2104.02794
openalex publication_date 2021/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Inhibitory neurons play a crucial role in maintaining persistent neuronal activity. Although connected extensively through electrical synapses (gap-junctions), these neurons also exhibit interactions through chemical synapses in certain regions of the brain. When the coupling is sufficiently strong, the effects of these two synaptic modalities combine in a nonlinear way. Hence, in this work, we focus on the strong inhibition regime and identify the parametric conditions that result in the emergence of self-sustained oscillations in systems of coupled excitable neurons, in the presence of a brief sub-threshold stimulus. Our investigation on the dynamics in a minimal network of two neurons reveals a rich set of dynamical behaviors viz., periodic and various complex oscillations including period-n (n=2,4,8...) dynamics and chaos. We further extend our study by considering a system of inhibitory neurons arranged in a one-dimensional ring topology and determine the optimal conditions for sustained activity. Our work highlights the nonlinear dynamical behavior arising due to the combined effects of gap-junctions and strong synaptic inhibition, which can have potential implications in maintaining robust memory patterns.