Mechanisms of Synchrony of Neural Activity in Large Networks

D. HANSEL; D. GOLOMB; G. MATO

Handbook of biological physics Volume 4; Neuro-informatics

Elsevier

Año: 2000; p. 1 - 65

One of the central issues in Neuroscience is how the brain represents information about its environment and past experience. Initially, the working hypothesis of many researchers was that the firing rates of the neurons code for this information. More recent studies have suggested that relevant information may be contained in the spike to spike correlations between neurons. Currently, it isbecoming increasingly clear that it is the details of the complex spatio temporal patterns of activity exhibited by the brain which subserve its function. These activity patterns are extremely rich; they include stochastic weakly correlated local firing, synchronized oscillations and bursts , as well as propagating waves of activity.Synchronous electrical activity is known to occur in the nervous system since the discovery of electroencephalography in the 30's  and the first studies on the rhythm in mammals. Following these pioneering works, many other examples of synchronous activity have been discovered in various species and areas of the nervous system.