title: Spatiotemporally varying visual hallucinations: I. Corticothalamic theory.
abstract: The thalamus is introduced to a recent model of the visual cortex to examine its effect on pattern formation in general and the generation of temporally oscillating patterns in particular. By successively adding more physiological details to a basic corticothalamic model, it is determined which features are responsible for which effects. In particular, with the addition of a thalamic population, several changes occur in the spatiotemporal power spectrum: power increases at resonances of the corticothalamic loop, while the loop acts as a spatiotemporal low-pass filter, and synaptic and dendritic dynamics temporally low-pass filter the activity more generally. Investigation of the effect of altering parameters and gains reveals new parameter regimes where activity that corresponds to hallucinations is induced by both spatially homogeneous and inhomogeneous temporally oscillating modes. This suggests that the thalamus and corticothalamic loops are essential components of a model of oscillating visual hallucinations.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Brain Dynamics Center, Westmead Millennium Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Henke
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Brain Dynamics Center, Westmead Millennium Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia; Center for Integrative Brain Function, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Center for Integrative Research and Understanding of Sleep, 431 Glebe Point Rd., Glebe, New South Wales 2037, Australia; Cooperative Research Center for Alertness, Sleep, and Productivity, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Neurosleep, 431 Glebe Point Rd., Glebe, New South Wales 2037, Australia. Electronic address: robinson@physics.usyd.edu.au.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Brain Dynamics Center, Westmead Millennium Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Drysdale
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; Brain Dynamics Center, Westmead Millennium Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia; Los Alamos National Laboratory, SM 30 Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
authors.forename: P N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Loxley
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003712:Dendrites; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D013569:Synapses; D013788:Thalamus / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Model; Oscillations; Spatiotemporal; Thalamus