Delay-enhanced coherence of spiral waves in noisy Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal networks

We study the spatial dynamics of spiral waves in noisy Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal ensembles evoked by different information transmission delays and network topologies. In classical settings of coherence resonance the intensity of noise is fine-tuned so as to optimize the system's response. Here, we keep the noise intensity constant, and instead, vary the length of information transmission delay amongst coupled neurons. We show that there exists an intermediate transmission delay by which the spiral waves are optimally ordered, hence indicating the existence of delay-enhanced coherence of spatial dynamics in the examined system. Additionally, we examine the robustness of this phenomenon as the diffusive interaction topology changes towards the small-world type, and discover that shortcut links amongst distant neurons hinder the emergence of coherent spiral waves irrespective of transmission delay length. Presented results thus provide insights that could facilitate the understanding of information transmission delay on realistic neuronal networks.     

Spatial coherence resonance induced by coloured noise and parameter diversity in a neuronal network

Spatial coherence resonance in a two-dimensional neuronal network induced by additive Gaussian coloured noise and parameter diversity is studied. We focus on the ability of additive Gaussian coloured noise and parameter diversity to extract a particular spatial frequency (wave number) of excitatory waves in the excitable medium of this network. We show that there exists an intermediate noise level of the coloured noise and a particular value of diversity, where a characteristic spatial frequency of the system comes forth. Hereby, it is verified that spatial coherence resonance occurs in the studied model. Furthermore, we show that the optimal noise intensity for spatial coherence resonance decays exponentially with respect to the noise correlation time. Some explanations of the observed nonlinear phenomena are also presented.     

Coherence Resonance and Noise-Induced Synchronization in Hindmarsh-Rose Neural Network with Different Topologies

In this paper, we investigate coherence resonance （CR） and noise-induced synchronization in Hindmarsh- Rose （HR） neural network with three different types of topologies： regular, random, and small-world. It is found that the additive noise can induce CR in HR neural network with different topologies and its coherence is optimized by a proper noise level. It is also found that as coupling strength increases the plateau in the measure of coherence curve becomes broadened and the effects of network topology is more pronounced simultaneously. Moreover, we find that increasing the probability p of the network topology leads to an enhancement of noise-induced synchronization in HR neurons network.     

Multiple Spatial Coherence Resonances and Spatial Patterns in a Noise-Driven Heterogeneous Neuronal Network

Heterogeneity of the neurons and noise are inevitable in the real neuronal network. In this paper, Gaussian white noise induced spatial patterns including spiral waves and multiple spatial coherence resonances are studied in a network composed of Morris-Lecar neurons with heterogeneity characterized by parameter diversity. The relationship between the resonances and the transitions between ordered spiral waves and disordered spatial patterns are achieved. When parameter diversity is introduced, the maxima of multiple resonances increases first, and then decreases as diversity strength increases, which implies that the coherence degrees induced by noise are enhanced at an intermediate diversity strength. The synchronization degree of spatial patterns including ordered spiral waves and disordered patterns is identified to be a very low level. The results suggest that the nervous system can profit from both heterogeneity and noise, and the multiple spatial coherence resonances are achieved via the emergency of spiral waves instead of synchronization patterns.     

Spatial patterns in a network composed of neurons with different excitabilities induced by autapse

It has been identified that autapse can modulate dynamics of single neurons and spatial patterns of neuronal networks. In the present paper, based on the results that autapse can induce type II excitability changed to type I excitability, spatial pattern transitions are simulated in a two-dimensional neuronal network composed of excitatory coupled neurons with autapse which can induce excitability transition. Different spatial patterns including random-like pattern, irregular wave, regular wave, and nearly synchronous behavior are simulated with increasing the percentage (σ) of neurons with type I excitability. When noise is introduced, spiral waves are induced. By calculating signal-to-noise ratio from the spatial structure function and the mean firing probability of neurons, regular waves and spiral waves exhibit optimal spatial correlation, implying the occurrence of spatial coherence resonance phenomenon. The changes of mean firing probability of neurons show that different firing frequency between type I excitability and type II excitability may be an important factor to modulate the spatial patterns. The results are helpful to understand the spatial patterns including spiral waves observed in the biological experiment on the rat cortex perfused with drugs which can induce single neurons changed from type II excitability to type I excitability and block the inhibitory couplings between neurons. The excitability transition, absence of inhibitory coupling, noise as well as the autapse are important factors to modulate the spatial patterns including spiral waves.     

Spiral Waves and Multiple Spatial Coherence Resonances Induced by Colored Noise in Neuronal Network

Gaussian colored noise induced spatial patterns and spatial coherence resonances in a square lattice neuronal network composed of Morris-Lecar neurons are studied.Each neuron is at resting state near a saddle-node bifurcation on invariant circle,coupled to its nearest neighbors by electronic coupling.Spiral waves with different structures and disordered spatial structures can be alternately induced within a large range of noise intensity.By calculating spatial structure function and signal-to-noise ratio(SNR),it is found that SNR values are higher when the spiral structures are simple and are lower when the spatial patterns are complex or disordered,respectively.SNR manifest multiple local maximal peaks,indicating that the colored noise can induce multiple spatial coherence resonances.The maximal SNR values decrease as the correlation time of the noise increases.These results not only provide an example of multiple resonances,but also show that Gaussian colored noise play constructive roles in neuronal network.     

Collective temporal coherence for subthreshold signal encoding on a stochastic small-world Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal network

We study the collective temporal coherence of a small-world network of coupled stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley neurons. Previous reports have shown that network coherence in response to a subthreshold periodic stimulus, thus subthreshold signal encoding, is maximal for a specific range of the fraction of randomly added shortcuts relative to all possible shortcuts, p, added to an initially locally connected network. We investigated this behavior further as a function of channel noise, stimulus frequency and coupling strength. We show that temporal coherence peaks when the frequency of the external stimulus matches that of the intrinsic subthreshold oscillations. We also find that large values of the channel noise, corresponding to small cell sizes, increases coherence for optimal values of the stimulus frequency and the topology parameter p. For smaller values of the channel noise, thus larger cell sizes, network coherence becomes insensitive to these parameters. Finally, the degree of coupling between neurons in the network modulates the sensitivity of coherence to topology, such that for stronger coupling the peak coherence is achieved with fewer added short cuts.     

Correlated noise induced spatiotemporal coherence resonance in a square lattice network

The effects of additive correlated noise, which is composed of common Gaussian white noise and local Gaussian colored noise, on a square lattice network locally modelled by the Rulkov map are studied. We focus on the ability of noise to induce pattern formation in a resonant manner. It is shown that local Gaussian colored noise is able to induce pattern formation, which is more coherent at some noise intensity or correlation time, so it is able to induce spatiotemporal coherence resonance in the network. When common Gaussian white noise is applied in addition, it is seen that the correlated noise can induce coherent spatial structures at some intermediate noise correlation, while this is not the case for smaller and larger noise intensities. The mechanism of the observed spatiotemporal coherence resonance is discussed. It is also found that the correlation time of local colored noise has no evident effect on the optimal value of the noise strength for spatiotemporal coherence resonance in the network.     

Spatio-temporal patterns in a square-lattice Hodgkin-Huxley neural network

The collective behaviour of a square-lattice Hodgkin-Huxley neural network model with white noise is investigated by numerical methods. It is found that for an intermediate value of noise the Hodgkin-Huxley neurons in the square lattice exhibit an ordered circular structure. However, as the noise level increases, the ordered circular structures are distorted, and eventually totally destroyed. Thereby, the constructive role of appropriately pronounced random perturbations in the studied network is revealed. Furthermore, it is shown that as the diffusive coefficient increases, the typical width of the spatial waves also increases accordingly, which results in a decrease of the number of cycles by a given size of the spatial grid. More interestingly, it is observed that the spatio-temporal coherence resonance is enhanced as the diffusive coefficient is increased. Finally, the dependence of the typical width and the average period of the firing rate function on the diffusive coefficient is studied. Results presented in this paper should prove valuable for the understanding of information processing of neural systems in the presence of noise.     

Multiple spatial coherence resonance induced by the stochastic signal in neuronal networks near a saddle-node bifurcation

This paper reported multiple induction of spiral waves with a stochastic signal in a square lattice network model composed of type I Morris-Lecar (ML) neurons, where each neuron is coupled to its four nearest neighbors. The induction occurs in two or three distinct regions of noise intensity, and thus enables emergence of multiple spatial coherence in the network, demonstrating a novel evidence of multiple coherence resonance. Emergence of this multiple spatial coherence resonance was evidenced by calculating the degree of spatial complexity, spatial correlation length, spatial structure function, circular symmetry, and signal-to-noise ratio curves. The network was further characterized by spatial frequency and inherent spatial scale, reflecting its inherent ability to manifest ordered pattern formation under the driven of noisy signals.     

Hindmarsh-Rose神经元的随机自共振和噪声影响下的同步

研究了噪声对Hindmarsh-Rose(HR)神经元随机自共振和同步的影响。将高斯白噪声加入HR神经元模型的膜电位上，把外界直流电作为分岔参数，分别考虑参数处于Hopf分岔前、Hopf分岔附近和Hopf分岔后时，噪声影响下的随机自共振现象。两个未经耦合的全同HR神经元，如果接受相同的噪声激励，只要噪声强度高于某临界值，就能达到完全同步。进一步，噪声能够增强弱耦合神经元的完全同步。数值结果表明簇放电的神经元比峰放电的神经元更容易被噪声诱导而达到完全同步，耦合也增强了神经元对噪声激励的灵敏度。     

Coherence resonance and synchronization of Hindmarsh-Rose neurons with noise

Noise effects on coherence resonance and synchronization of Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) neuron model are studied. The coherence resonance of a single HR neuron with Gaussian white noise added to the membrane potential is investigated in situations before, near and after the Hopf bifurcation, separately, with the external direct current as a bifurcation parameter. It is shown that even though there is no coupling between neurons, uncoupled identical HR neurons driven by a common noise can achieve complete synchronization when the noise intensity is higher than a critical value. Furthermore, noise also enhances complete synchronization of weakly coupled neurons. It is concluded that synchronization in bursting neurons is easier to be induced than in spiking ones, and coupling enhances the sensitivity of synchronization of neurons to noise stimulus.     

Multiple coherence resonance induced by time-periodic coupling in stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal networks

In this paper, we study the effect of time-periodic coupling strength (TPCS) on the spiking coherence of Newman-Watts small-world networks of stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons and investigate the relations between the coupling strength and channel noise when coherence resonance (CR) occurs. It is found that, when the amplitude of TPCS is varied, the spiking induced by channel noise can exhibit CR and coherence bi-resonance (CBR), and the CR moves to a smaller patch area (bigger channel noise) when the amplitude increases; when the frequency of TPCS is varied, the intrinsic spiking can exhibit CBR and multiple CR, and the CR always occurs when the frequency is equal to or multiple of the spiking period, manifesting as the locking between the frequencies of the intrinsic spiking and the coupling strength. These results show that TPCS can greatly enhance and optimize the intrinsic spiking coherence, and favors the spiking with bigger channel noise to exhibit CR. This implies that, compared to constant coupling strength, TPCS may play a more efficient role for improving the time precision of the information processing in stochastic neuronal networks.     

耦合小世界神经网络的随机共振

噪声广泛存在于生物神经系统中,对系统功能具有重要作用.采用神经元二维映射模型构建一个复杂神经网络,由多个小世界子网络构成,研究了Gaussian白噪声诱导的随机共振现象.研究发现,只有合适的噪声强度才能使神经网络对输入刺激信号的频率响应达到峰值.另外,网络结构对系统随机共振特性有重要影响.在固定的耦合强度下,存在一个最优的局部小世界子网络结构,使得整个系统的频率响应最佳.     

Effects of channel noise on firing coherence of small-world Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal networks

We investigate the effects of channel noise on firing coherence of Watts-Strogatz small-world networks consisting of biophysically realistic HH neurons having a fraction of blocked voltage-gated sodium and potassium ion channels embedded in their neuronal membranes. The intensity of channel noise is determined by the number of non-blocked ion channels, which depends on the fraction of working ion channels and the membrane patch size with the assumption of homogeneous ion channel density. We find that firing coherence of the neuronal network can be either enhanced or reduced depending on the source of channel noise. As shown in this paper, sodium channel noise reduces firing coherence of neuronal networks; in contrast, potassium channel noise enhances it. Furthermore, compared with potassium channel noise, sodium channel noise plays a dominant role in affecting firing coherence of the neuronal network. Moreover, we declare that the observed phenomena are independent of the rewiring probability.     

Array-enhanced coherence resonance: nontrivial effects of heterogeneity and spatial independence of noise

We demonstrate the effect of coherence resonance in a heterogeneous array of coupled Fitz Hugh-Nagumo neurons. It is shown that coupling of such elements leads to a significantly stronger coherence compared to that of a single element. We report nontrivial effects of parameter heterogeneity and spatial independence of noise on array-enhanced coherence resonance; especially, we find that (i) the coherence increases as spatial correlation of the noise decreases, and (ii) inhomogeneity in the parameters of the array enhances the coherence. Our results have the implication that generic heterogeneity and background noise can play a constructive role to enhance the time precision of firing in neural systems.     

Coherence resonance and noise-induced synchronization in globally coupled Hodgkin-Huxley neurons

The coherence resonance (CR) of globally coupled Hodgkin-Huxley neurons is studied. When the neurons are set in the subthreshold regime near the firing threshold, the additive noise induces limit cycles. The coherence of the system is optimized by the noise. The coupling of the network can enhance CR in two different ways. In particular, when the coupling is strong enough, the synchronization of the system is induced and optimized by the noise. This synchronization leads to a high and wide plateau in the local CR curve. A bell-shaped curve is found for the peak height of power spectra of the spike train, being significantly different from a monotonic behavior for the single neuron. The local-noise-induced limit cycle can evolve to a refined spatiotemporal order through the dynamical optimization among the autonomous oscillation of an individual neuron, the coupling of the network, and the local noise.     

Spiral Wave in Small-World Networks of Hodgkin--Huxley Neurons

The effect of small-world connection and noise on the formation and transitionof spiral wave in the networks of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons are investigated in detail. Some interesting results are found in our numerical studies. i) The quiescent neurons are activated to propagate electric signal to others by generating and developing spiral wave from spiral seed in small area. ii) A statistical factor is defined to describe the collective properties and phase transition induced by the topology of networks and noise. iii) Stable rotating spiral wave can be generated and keeps robust when the rewiring probability is below certain threshold, otherwise, spiral wave can not be developed from the spiral seed and spiral wave breakup occurs for a stable rotating spiral wave. iv) Gaussian white noise is introduced on the membrane of neuronsto study the noise-induced phase transition on spiral wave in small-world networks of neurons. It is confirmed that Gaussian white noise plays active role in supporting and developing spiral wave in the networks of neurons, and appearance of smaller factor of synchronization indicates high possibility to induce spiral wave.     

Stochastic resonance on paced genetic regulatory small-world networks: effects of asymmetric potentials

We study the phenomenon of stochastic resonance on small-world networks consisting of bistable genetic regulatory units, whereby the external subthreshold periodic forcing is introduced as a pacemaker trying to impose its rhythm on the whole network through the single unit to which it is introduced. Without the addition of additive spatiotemporal noise, however, the whole network remains forever trapped in one of the two stable steady states of the local dynamics. We show that the correlation between the frequency of subthreshold pacemaker activity and the response of the network is resonantly dependent on the intensity of additive noise. The reported pacemaker driven stochastic resonance depends significantly on the asymmetry of the two potential wells characterizing the bistable dynamics, which can be tuned via a single system parameter. In particular, we show that the ratio between the clustering coefficient and the characteristic path length is a suitable quantity defining the ability of a small-world network to facilitate the outreach of the pacemaker-emitted subthreshold rhythm, but only if the asymmetry between the potentials is practically negligible. In case of substantially asymmetric potentials the impact of the small-world topology is less profound and cannot warrant an enhancement of stochastic resonance by units that are located far from the pacemaker.     

Dynamics of neuron populations in noisy environments

In this paper different topologies of populations of FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons have been introduced in order to investigate the role played by the noise in the network. Each neuron is subjected to an independent source of noise. In these conditions the behavior of the population depends on the connection among the elements. By analyzing several kinds of topology (ranging from regular to random) different behaviors have been observed. Several topologies behave in an optimal way with respect to the range of noise level leading to an improvement in the stimulus response coherence, while others with respect to the maximum values of the performance index. However, the best results in terms of both the suitable noise level and high stimulus response coherence have been obtained when a diversity in neuron characteristic parameters has been introduced and the neurons have been connected in a small-world topology.