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Exploring the spectrum of dynamical regimes and timescales in spontaneous cortical activity

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Abstract

Rhythms at slow (<1 Hz) frequency of alternating Up and Down states occur during slow-wave sleep states, under deep anaesthesia and in cortical slices of mammals maintained in vitro. Such spontaneous oscillations result from the interplay between network reverberations nonlinearly sustained by a strong synaptic coupling and a fatigue mechanism inhibiting the neurons firing in an activity-dependent manner. Varying pharmacologically the excitability level of brain slices we exploit the network dynamics underlying slow rhythms, uncovering an intrinsic anticorrelation between Up and Down state durations. Besides, a non-monotonic change of Down state duration is also observed, which shrinks the distribution of the accessible frequencies of the slow rhythms. Attractor dynamics with activity-dependent self-inhibition predicts a similar trend even when the system excitability is reduced, because of a stability loss of Up and Down states. Hence, such cortical rhythms tend to display a maximal size of the distribution of Up/Down frequencies, envisaging the location of the system dynamics on a critical boundary of the parameter space. This would be an optimal solution for the system in order to display a wide spectrum of dynamical regimes and timescales.

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Acknowledgments

We want to thank M. Perez-Zabalza, V.F. Descalzo and R. Reig for their contribution. This work was supported by a Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) grant (BFU2008-01371/BFI) to MVSV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Superiore di Sanità, viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Maurizio Mattia

  2. IDIBAPS, Roselló 149-153, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Maria V. Sanchez-Vives

  3. ICREA, Passeig Lluis Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

    Maria V. Sanchez-Vives

  4. Istituto Superiore di Sanità, viale Regina Elena 299, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Maurizio Mattia

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  1. Maurizio Mattia
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  2. Maria V. Sanchez-Vives
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Correspondence to Maurizio Mattia.

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Mattia, M., Sanchez-Vives, M.V. Exploring the spectrum of dynamical regimes and timescales in spontaneous cortical activity. Cogn Neurodyn 6, 239–250 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-011-9179-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-011-9179-4

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