The role of spatio-temporal neural response characteristics in the formation of synchrony

Abstract

Although the functional role synchronous oscillations may play has been investigated in depth, the underlying processes and spatio-temporal aspects that establish the synchrony are still not thoroughly understood. Experimental studies suggest the existence of two kinds of oscillations: stimulus-locked and stimulus-induced. While stimulus-locked oscillations are systematically dependent on the stimulus, stimulus-induced oscillations (occurring in the γ frequency range) show only little stimulus dependency. We propose a unifying approach which employs very generic connection structures. Different degrees of synchrony on different time scales are observed as an emergent feature of the network structure. Our model demonstrates that both, stimulus-locked and stimulus-induced oscillations are just two different states of the same system. A transition from one state to the other is observed, and the synchronous activity provides the basis for binding visual features.