Effects of Small-World Rewiring Probability and Noisy Synaptic Conductivity on Slow Waves: Cortical Network

Abstract

Physiological rhythms play a critical role in the functional development of living beings. Many biological functions are executed with an interaction of rhythms produced by internal characteristics of scores of cells. While synchronized oscillations may be associated with normal brain functions, anomalies in these oscillations may cause or relate the emergence of some neurological or neuropsychological pathologies. This study was designed to investigate the effects of topological structure and synaptic conductivity noise on the spatial synchronization and temporal rhythmicity of the waves generated by cells in the network. Because of holding the ability of clustering and randomizing with change of parameters, small-world (SW) network topology was chosen. The oscillatory activity of network was tried out by manipulating an insulated SW, cortical network model whose morphology is very close to real world. According to the obtained results, it was observed that at the optimal probabilistic rates of conductivity noise and rewiring of SW, powerful synchronized oscillatory small waves are generated in relation to the internal dynamics of cells, which are in line with the network’s input. These two parameters were observed to be quite effective on the excitation-inhibition balance of the network. Accordingly, it may be suggested that the topological dynamics of SW and noisy synaptic conductivity may be associated with the normal and abnormal development of neurobiological structure.