Physiologically motivated multiplex Kuramoto model describes phase diagram of cortical activity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a physiologically motivated multiplex Kuramoto model derived from Wilson-Cowan oscillators, capturing cortical activity phases such as background, seizure, and resting states, influenced by blood flow and GABA levels.

Contribution

The study develops a novel multiplex Kuramoto model incorporating physiological parameters to explain cortical phase transitions and dynamics.

Findings

Identifies three cortical activity phases: unsynchronized, synchronized, and chaotic.

Shows frequency suppression during transition from resting to seizure activity.

Demonstrates influence of blood flow and GABA on phase behavior.

Abstract

We derive a two-layer multiplex Kuramoto model from weakly coupled Wilson-Cowan oscillators on a cortical network with inhibitory synaptic time delays. Depending on the coupling strength and a phase shift parameter, related to cerebral blood flow and GABA concentration, respectively, we numerically identify three macroscopic phases: unsynchronized, synchronized, and chaotic dynamics. These correspond to physiological background-, epileptic seizure-, and resting-state cortical activity, respectively. We also observe frequency suppression at the transition from resting-state to seizure activity.