Clustering through postinhibitory rebound in synaptically coupled neurons

Abstract

The use of inhibitory synaptic connections to generate large scale coherent rhythms in the form of cluster states by a network of neurons, was investigated. Two cases, where the rebound mechanism is due to anode break excitation and where rebound is due to a slow T-type calcium current, were studied. Both the systems were found to break into clusters with a decrease in the duration of synaptic inhibition. A major difference between the two mechanisms for cluster generation was that anode break excitation could support clusters with several groups, while T-type calcium currents give rise to clusters of just two populations.