Experimental researches on different complex bifurcation procedures of neural firing patterns

Abstract

The bifurcation structures of neural firing patterns in parameter space are important in nonlinear dynamics, playing important roles in identifying neural information coding mechanism. The bifurcation structures of neural firing with respect to the changes of concentration of calcium ion are observed in the experiment on an injured sciatic nerve model when concentration of voltage dependent potassium channel blockers is fixed at different values. The simple bifurcation procedure composed of a few kinds of firing patterns and the complex one composed of multiple kinds of periodic and chaotic firing patterns can be transited each other. Two different kinds of complex bifurcation structures can also be transited each other. The difference between chaotic firing patterns near bifurcation points is the key indicator to distinguish the kinds of bifurcation procedures. The results not only enrich the nonlinear phenomenon of neural firing patterns, but also are helpful to identify neural coding mechanism based on the construction of the bifurcation structure of neural firing patterns in parameter space.