Dynamical State Transition by Neuromodulation Due to Acetylcholine in Neural Network Model for Oscillatory Phenomena in Thalamus

Abstract

We propose a two-layered neural network model for oscillatory phenomena in the thalamic system and investigate an effect of neuromodulation due to the acetylcholine on the oscillatory phenomena by numerical simulations. The proposed model consists of a layer of the thalamic reticular neurons and that of the cholinergic neurons. We introduce a dynamics of concentration of the acetylcholine which depends on a state of the cholinergic neurons, and assume that the conductance of the thalamic reticular neurons is dynamically regulated by the acetylcholine. From the results obtained by numerical simulations, we find that a dynamical transition between a bursting state and a resting state occurs successively in the layer of the thalamic reticular neurons due to the acetylcholine. Therefore it turns out that the neuromodulation due to the acetylcholine is important for the dynamical state transition in the thalamic system.