Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Neuronal and Sensory Systems

BP 14.8: Talk

Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 16:15–16:30, HÜL 186

Self-organized criticality in a neural network — •Christian Meisel and Thilo Gross — Max-Planck Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme

We evolve a network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons according to two topology-changing rules of synaptic plasticity: spike-time dependent plasticity (STDP) and homeostatic synaptic plasticity (HSP). Both local rules lead to convergence to an average number of synapses per neuron at which the network is at a phase transition. At the evolved connectivity, avalanche sizes for the HSP rule and amplitudes of neuronal activity for the STDP rule are power law distributed. Critical exponents are comparable to those observed in real cortical networks for both power laws. When extrapolated for realistic synaptic strengths, for the STDP rule the evolved average number of synapses per neuron is in the order of the one found in the brain.