2004/10/25 by Takaaki Aoki, Aoki, Takaaki, Toshio Aoyagi +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Memory and Neural Computing #FOS: Biological sciences #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #q-bio.NC #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.q-bio/0410029
14 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2004/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although recent neurophysiological experiments suggest that synchronous neural activity is involved in some perceptual and cognitive processes, the functional role of such coherent neuronal behavior is not well understood. As a first step in clarifying this role, we investigate how the temporal coherence of certain neuronal activity affects the activity pattern in a neural network. Using a simple network of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons, we study the effects of synchronized incoming spikes on the functioning of two mechanisms typically used in model neural systems, winner-take-all competition and associative memory. We demonstrate that a pair of switches undergone by the incoming spikes, from asynchronous to synchronous and then back to asynchronous, triggers a transition of the network from one state to another state. In the case of associative memory, for example, this switching controls the timing of the next recalling, whereas the firing rate pattern in the asynchronous state prepares the network for the next retrieval pattern.