Modeling intermittent synchronization of gamma-band neural oscillations

Synchronization in neural system plays important role in many brain functions such as perception and memory. Abnormal synchronization can be observed in neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, autism, and addiction. Neural synchronization is frequently intermittent even in a short time scale. That is, neural systems exhibit intervals of synchronization followed by intervals of desynchronization. Thus, neural circuits dynamics may show different distributions of duration of desynchronization even if the synchronization strength is similar. In general, some partially synchronized systems can exhibit a few but long desynchronized intervals while other systems can yield many but short desynchronized intervals. Experimental data thus far has shown that neural synchronization follows the latter trend in either healthy or diseased brains. In this study, we use a conductance-based PING network to study neural synchronization specifically in the low gamma band. This study explores the cellular and synaptic effects on the temporal patterning of the partially synchronized model gamma rhythms and considers potential functional implications of different temporal patterns.