Topic: firing rate model

All animal locomotion is rhythmic, whether it is achieved through undulation of the whole body or the coordinated movement of articulated limbs. Neurobiologists have long studied circuits that produce rhythmic activity with non-rhythmic input, also called central pattern generators (CPGs). However, the cellular and microcircuit implementation of a walking CPG has never been described for any limbed animal. Brand new comprehensive connectomes of the fruit fly ventral nerve cord (VNC) provide an opportunity to study rhythmogenic walking circuits at a synaptic resolution. In this project, we deve

Strongly interconnected neuronal populations are thought to be a substrate for memory in the brain. Dynamic connectivity relies on plasticity rules to adjust synapses, enabling learning and neural circuit formation. Networks with only excitatory synaptic plasticity can become unstable due to runaway excitation, compromising a circuit's ability to store memories. To counter this, homeostatic synaptic plasticity of inhibitory connections provide a matched negative feedback that stabilizes neural activity and any associated learning. In this study, we outline the conditions under which recurrent

Synaptic and representational drift describe the dynamic changes in neuronal connections and activity over time. However, the relationship between these two processes remains elusive. Here, we integrated representational dynamics and synaptic drift into a firing rate model to explore the influence of synaptic drift on representational drift.In mouse auditory cortex, neuronal populations respond to stimuli in a clustered manner (Aschauer et al., 2022). Our model, comprising inhibitory and excitatory neurons, reproduces these response patterns, especially under inhibition-dominated conditions. W

Stable neural activity plays a pivotal role in various cognitive, behavioral, and physiological functions, including information processing, memory consolidation, behavioral regulation, and attentional mechanisms. The orchestration of such stability is governed by the intricate interplay of synaptic connections within neural populations. Extensive theoretical and empirical investigations have underscored the influential role of synaptic weights in shaping both the collective dynamics and the fluctuations of neural activity. A salient inquiry arising from this understanding pertains to the mech