dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaOn the role of chemical synapses in coupled neurons with noise
| Authors | Pablo Balenzuela Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0502025 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0502025 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevE.72.021901 |
Abstract
We examine the behavior in the presence of noise of an array of Morris-Lecar neurons coupled via chemical synapses. Special attention is devoted to comparing this behavior with the better known case of electrical coupling arising via gap junctions. In particular, our numerical simulations show that chemical synapses are more efficient than gap junctions in enhancing coherence at an optimal noise (what is known as array-enhanced coherence resonance): in the case of (nonlinear) chemical coupling, we observe a substantial increase in the stochastic coherence of the system, in comparison with (linear) electrical coupling. We interpret this qualitative difference between both types of coupling as arising from the fact that chemical synapses only act while the presynaptic neuron is spiking, whereas gap junctions connect the voltage of the two neurons at all times. This leads in the electrical coupling case to larger correlations during interspike time intervals which are detrimental to the array-enhanced coherence effect. Finally, we report on the existence of a system-size coherence resonance in this locally coupled system, exhibited by the average membrane potential of the array.
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"abstract": "We examine the behavior in the presence of noise of an array of Morris-Lecar\nneurons coupled via chemical synapses. Special attention is devoted to\ncomparing this behavior with the better known case of electrical coupling\narising via gap junctions. In particular, our numerical simulations show that\nchemical synapses are more efficient than gap junctions in enhancing coherence\nat an optimal noise (what is known as array-enhanced coherence resonance): in\nthe case of (nonlinear) chemical coupling, we observe a substantial increase in\nthe stochastic coherence of the system, in comparison with (linear) electrical\ncoupling. We interpret this qualitative difference between both types of\ncoupling as arising from the fact that chemical synapses only act while the\npresynaptic neuron is spiking, whereas gap junctions connect the voltage of the\ntwo neurons at all times. This leads in the electrical coupling case to larger\ncorrelations during interspike time intervals which are detrimental to the\narray-enhanced coherence effect. Finally, we report on the existence of a\nsystem-size coherence resonance in this locally coupled system, exhibited by\nthe average membrane potential of the array.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0502025",
"authors": [
"Pablo Balenzuela Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.NC",
"cond-mat.other",
"physics.bio-ph",
"q-bio.OT"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevE.72.021901",
"title": "On the role of chemical synapses in coupled neurons with noise",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0502025"
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