Beating in Membrane Potential Mediated by Cortical γ-Oscillations for Reading Out Synchronous Neuronal Activities Over Distant Cortical Areas

摘要

I investigate whether cortical γ-oscillations are relevant to reading out synchronous neuronal firings that are distributed over the brain. A cortical neural network model is proposed and simulated. The model consists of two sensory networks (SI and SII) and one coincidence-sensitive network (CS). γ-oscillatory inputs and external stimuli are applied to interneurons and projection neurons of the sensory networks, respectively. The SI and SII networks project to the CS network in a divergent/convergent manner. Here I show that beating in membrane potential of CS neurons mediates the detection of synchronous neuronal firings between the SI and SII networks. A slight increase (a few Hz) in difference between frequencies of the γ-oscillations in the SI and SII networks generates the beating in the CS network. The synchronous neuronal firings are detected at each peak of the beating, regardless of difference in signal transmission time between SI-to-CS and SII-to-CS pathways.