Broadband Macroscopic Cortical Oscillations Emerge from Intrinsic Neuronal Response Failures

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that broadband cortical oscillations can originate solely from intrinsic neuronal response failures in excitatory networks, without topological constraints, revealing a new mechanism for neural rhythm generation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel mechanism where intrinsic neuronal response failures induce macroscopic oscillations in excitatory networks, supported by experimental, theoretical, and simulation evidence.

Findings

Oscillations emerge from neuronal response failures

Oscillations coexist with gamma rhythms

Network properties influence oscillation dynamics

Abstract

Broadband spontaneous macroscopic neural oscillations are rhythmic cortical firing which were extensively examined during the last century, however, their possible origination is still controversial. In this work we show how macroscopic oscillations emerge in solely excitatory random networks and without topological constraints. We experimentally and theoretically show that these oscillations stem from the counterintuitive underlying mechanism - the intrinsic stochastic neuronal response failures. These neuronal response failures, which are characterized by short-term memory, lead to cooperation among neurons, resulting in sub- or several- Hertz macroscopic oscillations which coexist with high frequency gamma oscillations. A quantitative interplay between the statistical network properties and the emerging oscillations is supported by simulations of large networks based on single-neuron in-vitro experiments and a Langevin equation describing the network dynamics. Results call for the examination of these oscillations in the presence of inhibition and external drives.