Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 20: Neurobiophysics

BP 20.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:45–12:00, ZEU 250

Up-Down state stimulation of a cortical model for slow waves in sleep — Arne Weigenand, Thomas Martinetz, and •Jens Christian Claussen — Neuro- und Bioinformatik, Univ. zu Lübeck

Neural systems exhibit complex dynamics on several time scales that can be significantly longer that that of single neuron spikes. The cortical slow oscillation is such an example where awake-like bursts (Up-states) are interrupted by Down states: low activity and absence of bursts. Up-Down state transitions are the dominant dynamical phenomenon manifesting mammalian slow wave sleep, and occur as macroscopic oscillations over the whole cortex. To model their minimal constituting dynamical mechanism still remains a challenge. An important means of model testing is to investigate perturbations of the model which correspond to an electrical stimulation in the experiment. A paradigmatic recent experiment [1] investigated the on- and off switching of bursting activity in ferret brain slices. We use a conductance-based model [2] following the approach of [3] to reproduce the spike-burst dynamics and the triggering of up states as observed in [1]. We also investigate the phase diagram of the qualitatively different network states depending on the coupling strength and network noise intensity [4]. While designed for the cortical up- down switching, it could be seen as a generic model of a driven fast-slow dynamical system.

[1] Y. Shu, A. Hasenstaub, and D. A. McCormick, Nature 423, 288 (2003). [2] A. Weigenand et al, Proc. Biosignal 2010 [3] A. Compte, M.V. Sanchez-Vives, D.A. McCormick, and X. Wang, J. Neurophysiol. 89, 2707 (2003). [4] A. Weigenand et al., in preparation