Effects of channel blocking on the spontaneous firing regularity of scale-free Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal network

Abstract

The channel noise stemming from voltage-gated ion channels, which embedded in excitable neuronal membranes has a great impact on the production and propagation of the action potential in stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons. In this study, we investigate the effects of sodium and potassium channels blockage and the average degree of connectivity on the spontaneous collective firing regularity on scale-free network which consisting of stochastic HH neurons. The obtained results reveal that potassium channel blockage has constructive effects on the firing regularity whereas sodium channel blockage has disruptive effects on the firing regularity. On the other hand, the spontaneous firing regularity exhibits coherence resonance depending on both the channel blockage scaling factor and the neuronal membrane area. The results also indicate that there is a lower boundary for the average degree of the network connectivity where the coherence resonance exists when the value of the network connectivity is greater than this lower boundary.