Slow population rhythms emerge in noisy inhibitory network models

Abstract

Inhibitory, interneuronal networks are known to underlie high-frequency (gamma, 40–80 Hz) population oscillations, and they are also known to underlie low-frequency rhythms. For example, spontaneous, slow (0.5–4 Hz) rhythms occur in rodent hippocampus [1]. However, it is unclear whether an inhibitory network can generate population oscillations much slower than the intrinsic firing frequencies of its consitutent neurons. Here we show that an inhibitory network model in the absence of any slow processes is able to produce low-frequency rhythms. To obtain this, we bridge our network model simulations with a dynamical mean-field (DMA) model [2] to approximate the location of relevant parameter regimes.