2013/04/24 by Kaare Mikkelsen, Kaare B. Mikkelsen, Alberto Imparato +1 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Neural dynamics and brain function #Photoreceptor and optogenetics research #cond-mat.dis-nn #q-bio.NC #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.208101
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 208101 (2013) · 8 pages, 6 figures to appear in Physical Review Letters plus additional material
arxiv created 2013/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2013/05/13 · arxiv updated 2013/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The collective dynamics of excitatory pulse coupled neurons with spike-timing dependent plasticity is studied. The introduction of spike-timing dependent plasticity induces persistent irregular oscillations between strongly and weakly synchronized states, reminiscent of brain activity during slow-wave sleep. We explain the oscillations by a mechanism, the Sisyphus Effect, caused by a continuous feedback between the synaptic adjustments and the coherence in the neural firing. Due to this effect, the synaptic weights have oscillating equilibrium values, and this prevents the system from relaxing into a stationary macroscopic state.