title: Mean-field theory of a plastic network of integrate-and-fire neurons.
abstract: We consider a noise-driven network of integrate-and-fire neurons. The network evolves as result of the activities of the neurons following spike-timing-dependent plasticity rules. We apply a self-consistent mean-field theory to the system to obtain the mean activity level for the system as a function of the mean synaptic weight, which predicts a first-order transition and hysteresis between a noise-dominated regime and a regime of persistent neural activity. Assuming Poisson firing statistics for the neurons, the plasticity dynamics of a synapse under the influence of the mean-field environment can be mapped to the dynamics of an asymmetric random walk in synaptic-weight space. Using a master equation for small steps, we predict a narrow distribution of synaptic weights that scales with the square root of the plasticity rate for the stationary state of the system given plausible physiological parameter values describing neural transmission and plasticity. The dependence of the distribution on the synaptic weight of the mean-field environment allows us to determine the mean synaptic weight self-consistently. The effect of fluctuations in the total synaptic conductance and plasticity step sizes are also considered. Such fluctuations result in a smoothing of the first-order transition for low number of afferent synapses per neuron and a broadening of the synaptic-weight distribution, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Chun-Chung
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jasnow
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission