Mixed Mode Oscillations and Synchronous Activity in Noise Induced Modified Morris–Lecar Neural System

Abstract

The modified three-dimensional (3D) Morris–Lecar (M–L) model is very useful to understand the spiking activities of neurons. The present article addresses the random dynamical behavior of a modified M–L model driven by a white Gaussian noise with mean zero and unit spectral density. The applied stimulus can be expressed as a random term. Such random perturbations are represented by a white Gaussian noise current added through the electrical potential of membrane of the excitatory principal cells. The properties of the stochastic system (perturbed one) and noise induced mixed mode oscillation are analyzed. The Lyapunov spectrum is computed to present the nature of the system dynamics. The noise intensity is varied while keeping fixed the predominant parameters of the model in their ranges and also observed the changes in the dynamical behavior of the system. The dynamical synchronization is studied in the coupled M–L systems interconnected by excitatory and inhibitory neurons with noisy electrical coupling and verified with similarity functions. This result suggests the potential benefits of noise and noise induced oscillations which have been observed in real neurons and how that affects the dynamics of the neural model as well as the coupled systems. The analysis reports that the modified M–L system which has the limit cycle behavior can show a type of phase locking behavior which follows either period adding (i.e. 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1) sequences or Farey sequences. For the coupled neural systems, complete synchronization is shown for sufficient noisy coupling strength.