Chimera states in bursting neurons

TL;DR

This paper investigates the emergence of chimera states in networks of bursting neurons with various coupling schemes, revealing that local interactions can produce complex synchronization patterns.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time that chimera states can occur in networks of identical bursting neurons with only local nearest neighbor coupling.

Findings

Chimera and multi-chimera states occur with local coupling.

Chemical synaptic interactions influence chimera emergence.

Statistical measures confirm various dynamical states.

Abstract

We study the existence of chimera states in pulse-coupled networks of bursting Hindmarsh-Rose neurons with nonlocal, global and local (nearest neighbor) couplings. Through a linear stability analysis, we discuss the behavior of stability function in the incoherent (i.e. disorder), coherent, chimera and multi-chimera states. Surprisingly, we find that chimera and multi-chimera states occur even using local nearest neighbor interaction in a network of identical bursting neurons alone. This is in contrast with the existence of chimera states in populations of nonlocally or globally coupled oscillators. A chemical synaptic coupling function is used which plays a key role in the emergence of chimera states in bursting neurons. Existence of chimera, multi-chimera, coherent and disordered states are confirmed by means of the recently introduced statistical measures and mean phase velocity.