title: Optimal information transfer in the cortex through synchronization.
abstract: In recent experimental work it has been shown that neuronal interactions are modulated by neuronal synchronization and that this modulation depends on phase shifts in neuronal oscillations. This result suggests that connections in a network can be shaped through synchronization. Here, we test and expand this hypothesis using a model network. We use transfer entropy, an information theoretical measure, to quantify the exchanged information. We show that transferred information depends on the phase relation of the signal, that the amount of exchanged information increases as a function of oscillations in the signal and that the speed of the information transfer increases as a function of synchronization. This implies that synchronization makes information transport more efficient. In summary, our results reinforce the hypothesis that synchronization modulates neuronal interactions and provide further evidence that gamma band synchronization has behavioral relevance.
authors.affiliation: Computational Neuroscience, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. andres.buhlmann@upf.edu
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buehlmann
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deco
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D003344:Cortical Synchronization / Q000502:physiology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D019277:Entropy; D000882:Haplorhini; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric