Effect of Delay on the Boundary of the Basin of Attraction in a Self-Excited Single Graded-Response Neuron

Abstract

Little attention has been paid in the past to the effects of interunit transmission delays (representing a xonal and synaptic delays) ontheboundary of the basin of attraction of stable equilibrium points in neural networks. As a first step toward a better understanding of the influence of delay, we study the dynamics of a single graded-response neuron with a delayed excitatory self-connection. The behavior of this system is representative of that of a family of networks composed of graded-response neurons in which most trajectories converge to stable equilibrium points for any delay value. It is shown that changing the delay modifies the “location” of the boundary of the basin of attraction of the stable equilibrium points without affecting the stability of the equilibria. The dynamics of trajectories on the boundary are also delay dependent and influence the transient regime of trajectories within the adjacent basins. Our results suggest that when dealing with networks with delay, it is important to study not only the effect of the delay on the asymptotic convergence of the system but also on the boundary of the basins of attraction of the equilibria.