title: Self-Organized Near-Zero-Lag Synchronization Induced by Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity in Cortical Populations.
abstract: Several cognitive tasks related to learning and memory exhibit synchronization of macroscopic cortical areas together with synaptic plasticity at neuronal level. Therefore, there is a growing effort among computational neuroscientists to understand the underlying mechanisms relating synchrony and plasticity in the brain. Here we numerically study the interplay between spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) and anticipated synchronization (AS). AS emerges when a dominant flux of information from one area to another is accompanied by a negative time lag (or phase). This means that the receiver region pulses before the sender does. In this paper we study the interplay between different synchronization regimes and STDP at the level of three-neuron microcircuits as well as cortical populations. We show that STDP can promote auto-organized zero-lag synchronization in unidirectionally coupled neuronal populations. We also find synchronization regimes with negative phase difference (AS) that are stable against plasticity. Finally, we show that the interplay between negative phase difference and STDP provides limited synaptic weight distribution without the need of imposing artificial boundaries.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió AL 57072-970, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernanda S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Matias
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife PE 50670-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Carelli
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos, IFISC CSIC-UIB, Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Claudio R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Mirasso
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife PE 50670-901, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Copelli
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*