Stochastic Amplification of Fluctuations in Cortical Up-States
Metadatos
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Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Materia
Cognifive science Depression Eigenvalues Membrane potential Neural networks Neurons Simulation and modeling Synaptic membranes
Date
2012Referencia bibliográfica
Hidalgo, J.; Seoane, L.F.; Cortés, J.M.; Muñoz, M.A. Stochastic Amplification of Fluctuations in Cortical Up-States. Plos One, 7(8): e40710 (2012). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31085]
Patrocinador
Funding provided by Spanish MICINN-FEDER under project FIS2009-08451 and Junta de Andalucia Proyecto de Excelencia P09FQM-4682. L.S. acknowledges the financial support of Fundacion P. Barrie de la Maza and funding grant 01GQ1001A.Résumé
Cortical neurons are bistable; as a consequence their local field potentials can fluctuate between quiescent and active states, generating slow Hz oscillations which are widely known as transitions between Up and Down States. Despite a large number of studies on Up-Down transitions, deciphering its nature, mechanisms and function are still today challenging tasks. In this paper we focus on recent experimental evidence, showing that a class of spontaneous oscillations can emerge within the Up states. In particular, a non-trivial peak around Hz appears in their associated power-spectra, what produces an enhancement of the activity power for higher frequencies (in the Hz band). Moreover, this rhythm within Ups seems to be an emergent or collective phenomenon given that individual neurons do not lock to it as they remain mostly unsynchronized. Remarkably, similar oscillations (and the concomitant peak in the spectrum) do not appear in the Down states. Here we shed light on these findings by using different computational models for the dynamics of cortical networks in presence of different levels of physiological complexity. Our conclusion, supported by both theory and simulations, is that the collective phenomenon of “stochastic amplification of fluctuations” – previously described in other contexts such as Ecology and Epidemiology – explains in an elegant and parsimonious manner, beyond model-dependent details, this extra-rhythm emerging only in the Up states but not in the Downs.