Frequency-domain order parameters for the burst and spike synchronization transitions of bursting neurons

Abstract

We are interested in characterization of synchronization transitions of bursting neurons in the frequency domain. Instantaneous population firing rate (IPFR) [Formula: see text], which is directly obtained from the raster plot of neural spikes, is often used as a realistic collective quantity describing population activities in both the computational and the experimental neuroscience. For the case of spiking neurons, a realistic time-domain order parameter, based on [Formula: see text], was introduced in our recent work to characterize the spike synchronization transition. Unlike the case of spiking neurons, the IPFR [Formula: see text] of bursting neurons exhibits population behaviors with both the slow bursting and the fast spiking timescales. For our aim, we decompose the IPFR [Formula: see text] into the instantaneous population bursting rate [Formula: see text] (describing the bursting behavior) and the instantaneous population spike rate [Formula: see text] (describing the spiking behavior) via frequency filtering, and extend the realistic order parameter to the case of bursting neurons. Thus, we develop the frequency-domain bursting and spiking order parameters which are just the bursting and spiking "coherence factors" [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of the bursting and spiking peaks in the power spectral densities of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] (i.e., "signal to noise" ratio of the spectral peak height and its relative width). Through calculation of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], we obtain the bursting and spiking thresholds beyond which the burst and spike synchronizations break up, respectively. Consequently, it is shown in explicit examples that the frequency-domain bursting and spiking order parameters may be usefully used for characterization of the bursting and the spiking transitions, respectively.