Devalle, Federico and Roxin, Alex and Montbrió, Ernest (2017) Firing rate equations require a spike synchrony mechanism to correctly describe fast oscillations in inhibitory networks. PLoS Computational Biology, 13 (12). ISSN 1553-734X
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Author summary Population models describing the average activity of large neuronal ensembles are a powerful mathematical tool to investigate the principles underlying cooperative function of large neuronal systems. However, these models do not properly describe the phenomenon of spike synchrony in networks of neurons. In particular, they fail to capture the onset of synchronous oscillations in networks of inhibitory neurons. We show that this limitation is due to a voltage-dependent synchronization mechanism which is naturally present in spiking neuron models but not captured by traditional firing rate equations. Here we investigate a novel set of macroscopic equations which incorporate both firing rate and membrane potential dynamics, and that correctly generate fast inhibition-based synchronous oscillations. In the limit of slow-synaptic processing oscillations are suppressed, and the model reduces to an equation formally equivalent to the Wilson-Cowan model.