Effect of time delay and plasticity in neuronal synchronization

Abstract

In this project, we investigate the behavior of a neuronal network with dynamics described by the Hodgkin and Huxley model, with interest in investigating the synchronization of neuronal activities through newly developed numerical diagnoses. The Neuronal synchronization has attracting attention of the scientific community, because this type of behavior is associated with known brain pathologies, such as Epilepsy and Parkinson's Disease. Given this scenario, we investigated a network with random initial architecture, considering the existence of excitatory (inhibitory) chemical synapses, as well as the presence of plasticity and the time delay in neuronal connections. The Plasticity is linked to the ability to transmit information among neurons, and the time delay represents a delay in conducting this information. In this context, we simulate the effect of plasticity by introducing synaptic weights into the system, and the time delay is represented by a control parameter to be inserted in the dynamics discussed. At the end of this proposal, we will have characterized the behavior of synchronization (desynchronization) of the network, besides to classifying possible complex structures in the parameter spaces of the model. (AU)