Model of brain rhythmic activity

Abstract

• 1. A model of a neuronal network has been set up in a digital computer based on histological and biophysical data experimentally obtained from the thalamus; the model includes two populations of neurons interconnected by means of negative feedback; in the model allowance is also made for other sort of interactions.

• 2. To test the hypothesis that the alpha-rhythm (8–13 Hz rhythmic activity characteristic of the EEG) is a filtered noise signal the simulated neuronal network was stimulated by random trains of pulses with a Poisson distribution. The density of pulses fired by the simulated neurons was computed as well as the oscillations of the mean membrane potential of the population of simulated neurons. The latter was found to be equivalent to the experimentally obtained alpha rhythms.

• 3. In order to test the hypothesis that several noise sources are responsible for thalamo-cortical coherences three simulated neuronal networks were coupled together using several noise sources as secondary inputs. It was shown that although all the networks produced simulated alpha signals with identical spectra they could have significantly different values of coherence depending on the relation between correlated and uncorrelated input signals.

• 4. The model was analysed by means of linear systems analysis after introducing the necessary simplifications and approximations. In this way it was possible to evaluate the influence of different physiological or histological parameters upon the statistical properties of the resulting rhythmic activity in an analytical form.

• 5. By changing the model parameters it was shown that a family of spectral curves could be obtained which simulated the development of the EEG as function of age from a predominantly low frequency to a clearly rhythmic type of signal. This was shown to depend mainly on the feedback coupling parameters.