Coexistence of firing patterns and its control in two neurons coupled through an asymmetric electrical synapse

High-order synchronization in identical neurons with asymmetric pulse coupling

The phenomenon of high-order (p/q) synchronization, induced by two different frequencies in the system, is well known and studied extensively in forced oscillators including neurons and to a lesser extent in coupled oscillators. Their frequencies are locked such that for every p cycles of one oscillator there are q cycles of the other. We demonstrate this phenomenon in a pair of coupled neurons having identical frequencies but asymmetric coupling. Specifically, we focus on an excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) neuron pair where such an asymmetry is naturally present even with equal reciprocal synaptic strengths (g) and inverse time constant (α). We thoroughly investigate the asymmetric coupling-induced p/q frequency-locking structure in (g,α) parameter space through simulations and analysis. Simulations display quasiperiodicity, devil staircase, a Farey arrangement of spike sequences, and presence of reducible and irreducible p/q regions. We introduce an analytical method, based on event-driven maps, to determine the existence and stability of any spike sequence of the two neurons in a p/q frequency-locked state. Specifically, this method successfully deals with nonsmooth bifurcations and we could utilize it to obtain solutions for the case of identical E-I neuron pair under arbitrary coupling strength. In contrast to the so-called Arnold tongues, the p/q regions obtained here are not structureless. Instead they have their own internal bifurcation structure with varying levels of complexity. Intrasequence and intersequence multistability, involving spike sequences of same p/q state, are found. Additionally, multistability also arises by overlap of p/q with p^{'}/q^{'}. The boundaries of both reducible and irreducible p/q regions are defined by saddle node and nonsmooth grazing bifurcations of various types.

In-phase and anti-phase bursting dynamics and synchronisation scenario in neural network by varying coupling phase

We have analysed the synchronisation scenario and the rich spatiotemporal patterns in the network of Hindmarsh-Rose neurons under the influence of self, mixed and cross coupling of state variables which are realised by varying coupling phase. We have introduced a coupling matrix in the model to vary coupling phase. The excitatory and inhibitory couplings in the membrane potential induce in-phase and anti-phase bursting dynamics, respectively, in the two coupled system. When the off-diagonal elements of the matrix are zero, the system shows self coupling of the three variables, which helps to attain synchrony. The off-diagonal elements give cross interactions between the variables, which reduces synchrony. The stability of the synchrony attained is analysed using Lyapunov function approach. In our study, we found that self coupling in three variables is sufficient to induce chimera states in non-local coupling. The strength of incoherence and discontinuity measure validates the existence of chimera and multichimera states. The inhibitor self coupling in local interaction induces interesting patterns like Mixed Oscillatory State and clusters. The results may help in understanding the spatiotemporal communications of the brain, within the limitations of the size of the network analysed in this study.

Hamiltonian energy and coexistence of hidden firing patterns from bidirectional coupling between two different neurons

In this paper, bidirectional-coupled neurons through an asymmetric electrical synapse are investigated. These coupled neurons involve 2D Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) and 2D FitzHugh-Nagumo (FN) neurons. The equilibria of the coupled neurons model are investigated, and their stabilities have revealed that, for some values of the electrical synaptic weight, the model under consideration can display either self-excited or hidden firing patterns. In addition, the hidden coexistence of chaotic bursting with periodic spiking, chaotic spiking with period spiking, chaotic bursting with a resting pattern, and the coexistence of chaotic spiking with a resting pattern are also found for some sets of electrical synaptic coupling. For all the investigated phenomena, the Hamiltonian energy of the model is computed. It enables the estimation of the amount of energy released during the transition between the various electrical activities. Pspice simulations are carried out based on the analog circuit of the coupled neurons to support our numerical results. Finally, an STM32F407ZE microcontroller development board is exploited for the digital implementation of the proposed coupled neurons model.

Coexistence of infinitely many patterns and their control in heterogeneous coupled neurons through a multistable memristive synapse

The phenomenon of hidden heterogeneous extreme multistability is rarely reported in coupled neurons. This phenomenon is investigated in this contribution using a model of a 2D FitzHugh-Nagumo neuron coupled with a 3D Hindmarsh-Rose neuron through a multistable memristive synapse. The investigation of the equilibria revealed that the coupled neuron model is equilibrium free and, thus, displays a hidden dynamics. Some traditional nonlinear analysis tools are used to demonstrate that the heterogeneous neuron system is able to exhibit the coexistence of an infinite number of electrical activities involving both periodic and chaotic patterns. Of particular interest, a noninvasive control method is applied to suppress all the periodic coexisting activities, while preserving only the desired chaotic one. Finally, an electronic circuit of the coupled neurons is designed in the PSpice environment and used to further support some results of the theoretical investigations.

Spiral waves in a hybrid discrete excitable media with electromagnetic flux coupling

Though there are many neuron models based on differential equations, the complexity in realizing them into digital circuits is still a challenge. Hence, many new discrete neuron models have been recently proposed, which can be easily implemented in digital circuits. We consider the well-known FitzHugh-Nagumo model and derive the discrete version of the model considering the sigmoid type of recovery variable and electromagnetic flux coupling. We show the various time series plots confirming the existence of periodic and chaotic bursting as in differential equation type neuron models. Also, we have used the bifurcation plots, Lyapunov exponents, and frequency bifurcations to investigate the dynamics of the proposed discrete neuron model. Different topologies of networks like single, two, and three layers are considered to analyze the wave propagation phenomenon in the network. We introduce the concept of using energy levels of nodes to study the spiral wave existence and compare them with the spatiotemporal snapshots. Interestingly, the energy plots clearly show that when the energy level of nodes is different and distributed, the occurrence of the spiral waves is identified in the network.

Hidden coexisting firings in fractional-order hyperchaotic memristor-coupled HR neural network with two heterogeneous neurons and its applications

The firing patterns of each bursting neuron are different because of the heterogeneity, which may be derived from the different parameters or external drives of the same kind of neurons, or even neurons with different functions. In this paper, the different electromagnetic effects produced by two fractional-order memristive (FOM) Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) neuron models are selected for characterizing different firing patterns of heterogeneous neurons. Meanwhile, a fractional-order memristor-coupled heterogeneous memristive HR neural network is constructed via coupling these two heterogeneous FOM HR neuron models, which has not been reported in the adjacent neuron models with memristor coupling. With the study of initial-depending bifurcation behaviors of the system, it is found that the system exhibits abundant hidden firing patterns, such as periods with different topologies, quasiperiodic firings, chaos with different topologies, and even hyperchaotic firings. Particularly, the hidden hyperchaotic firings are perfectly detected by two-dimensional Lyapunov stability graphs in the two-parameter space. Meanwhile, the hidden coexisting firing patterns of the system are excited from two scattered attraction domains, which can be confirmed from the local attraction basins. Furthermore, the color image encryption based on the system and the DNA approach owns great keyspace and a good encryption effect. Finally, the digital implementations based on Advanced RISC Machine are in good coincidence with numerical simulations.

Window of multistability and its control in a simple 3D Hopfield neural network: application to biomedical image encryption

In this contribution, the problem of multistability control in a simple model of 3D HNNs as well as its application to biomedical image encryption is addressed. The space magnetization is justified by the coexistence of up to six disconnected attractors including both chaotic and periodic. The linear augmentation method is successfully applied to control the multistable HNNs into a monostable network. The control of the coexisting four attractors including a pair of chaotic attractors and a pair of periodic attractors is made through three crises that enable the chaotic attractors to be metamorphosed in a monostable periodic attractor. Also, the control of six coexisting attractors (with two pairs of chaotic attractors and a pair of periodic one) is made through five crises enabling all the chaotic attractors to be metamorphosed in a monostable periodic attractor. Note that this controlled HNN is obtained for higher values of the coupling strength. These interesting results are obtained using nonlinear analysis tools such as the phase portraits, bifurcations diagrams, graph of maximum Lyapunov exponent, and basins of attraction. The obtained results have been perfectly supported using the PSPICE simulation environment. Finally, a simple encryption scheme is designed jointly using the sequences of the proposed HNNs and the sequences of real/imaginary values of the Julia fractals set. The obtained cryptosystem is validated using some well-known metrics. The proposed method achieved entropy of 7.9992, NPCR of 99.6299, and encryption time of 0.21 for the 256*256 sample 1 image.