title: Reverberating activity in a neural network with distributed signal transmission delays.
abstract: It is known that an identical delay in all transmission lines can destabilize the macroscopic stationarity of a neural network, causing oscillation. We analyze the collective dynamics of a network whose transmission delays are distributed in time. Here, a neuron is modeled as a discrete-time threshold element that responds in an all-or-nothing manner to a linear sum of signals that arrive after delays assigned to individual transmission lines. Even though transmission delays are distributed in time, a whole network exhibits a single collective oscillation with a period close to the average transmission delay. The collective oscillation cannot only be a simple alternation of the consecutive firing and resting, but also arbitrarily sequenced series of firing and resting, reverberating in a certain period of time. Moreover, the system dynamics can be made quasiperiodic or chaotic by changing the distribution of delays.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. omi@ton.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Omi
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinomoto
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000379:methods; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*