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Dynamic excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance is a paradigmatic mechanism invoked to explain the irregular low firing activity observed in the cortex. However, we will show that the E-I balance can be at the origin of other regimes observable in the brain. The analysis is performed by combining simulations of sparse E-I networks composed of N spiking neurons with analytical investigations of low dimensional neural mass models. The bifurcation diagrams, derived for the neural mass model, allow to classify the asynchronous and coherent behaviours emerging any finite in-degree K. In the limit N >> K >> 1 both supra and sub-threshold balanced asynchronous regimes can be observed. Due to structural heterogeneity the asynchronous states are characterized by the splitting of the neurons in three groups: silent, fluctuation and mean driven. The coherent rhythms are characterized by regular or irregular temporal fluctuations joined to spatial coherence similar to coherent fluctuations observed in the cortex over multiple spatial scales. Collective Oscillations (COs) can emerge due to two different mechanisms. A first mechanism similar to the pyramidal-interneuron gamma (PING) one. The second mechanism is intimately related to the presence of current fluctuations, which sustain COs characterized by an essentially simultaneous bursting of the two populations. We observe period-doubling cascades involving the PING-like COs finally leading to the appearance of coherent chaos. For sufficiently strong current fluctuations we report a novel mechanism of frequency locking among collective rhythms promoted by these intrinsic fluctuations. Our analysis suggest that despite PING-like or fluctuation driven COS are observable for any finite in-degree K, in the limit N >> K >> 1 these solutions result in two coexisting balanced regimes: an asynchronous and a fully synchronized one.

Theta-nested gamma oscillations have been reported in many areas of the brain and are believed to represent a fundamental mechanism to transfer information across spatial and temporal scales. In a series of recent experiments in vitro it has been possible to replicate with an optogenetic theta frequency stimulation several features of cross-frequency coupling among theta and gamma rhythms observed in behaving animals. In order to reproduce the main findings of these experiments we have considered a new class of neural mass models able to reproduce exactly the macroscopic dynamics of spiking neural networks. In this framework, we have examined two set-ups able to support collective gamma oscillations: the pyramidal interneuronal network gamma (PING) and the interneuronal network gamma (ING). In both set-ups we observe the emergence of theta-nested gamma oscillations by driving the system with a sinusoidal theta-forcing in proximity of a Hopf bifurcation. These mixed rhythms display always phase amplitude coupling. However 2 different types of nested oscillations can be identified: one characterized by a perfect phase locking between theta and gamma rhythms, corresponding to an overall periodic behaviour; another one where the locking is imperfect and the dynamics is quasi-periodic or even chaotic. From our analysis it emerges that the locked states are more frequent in the ING set-up. In agreement with the experiments, we find theta-nested gamma oscillations for forcing frequencies in the range [1:10] Hz, whose amplitudes grow proportionally to the forcing one and which are clearly modulated by the theta phase. At variance with experimental findings, the gamma-power peak does not shift to higher frequencies by increasing the theta frequency. This effect can be obtained, in or model, only by incrementing, at the same time, also the noise or the forcing amplitude., Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures

Oscillations are a hallmark of neural population activity in various brain regions with a spectrum covering a wide range of frequencies. Within this spectrum gamma oscillations have received particular attention due to their ubiquitous nature and to their correlation with higher brain functions. Recently, it has been reported that gamma oscillations in the hippocampus of behaving rodents are segregated in two distinct frequency bands: slow and fast. These two gamma rhythms correspond to dfferent states of the network, but their origin has been not yet clarified. Here, we show theoretically and numerically that a single inhibitory population can give rise to coexisting slow and fast gamma rhythms corresponding to collective oscillations of a balanced spiking network. The slow and fast gamma rhythms are generated via two different mechanisms: the fast one being driven by the coordinated tonic neural firing and the slow one by endogenous fluctuations due to irregular neural activity. We show that almost instantaneous stimulations can switch the collective gamma oscillations from slow to fast and vice versa. Furthermore, to make a closer contact with the experimental observations, we consider the modulation of the gamma rhythms induced by a slower (theta) rhythm driving the network dynamics. In this context, depending on the strength of the forcing, we observe phase-amplitude and phase-phase coupling between the fast and slow gamma oscillations and the theta forcing. Phase-phase coupling reveals different theta-phases preferences for the two coexisting gamma rhythms., Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures

Recently, the explosive phase transitions, such as explosive percolation and explosive synchronization, have attracted extensive research interest. So far, most existing works investigate Kuramoto-type models, where only phase variables are involved. Here, we report the occurrence of explosive oscillation quenching in a system of coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators that incorporates both phase and amplitude dynamics. We observe three typical scenarios with distinct microscopic mechanism of occurrence, i.e., ordinary, hierarchical, and cluster explosive oscillation death, corresponding to different frequency distributions of oscillators, respectively. We carry out theoretical analyses and obtain the backward transition point, which is shown to be independent of the specific frequency distributions. Numerical results are consistent with the theoretical prediction.

Synchronization in a frequency-weighted Kuramoto model with a uniform frequency distribution is studied. We plot the bifurcation diagram and identify the asymptotic coherent states. Numerical simulations show that the system undergoes two first-order transitions in both the forward and backward directions. Apart from the trivial phase-locked state, a novel nonstationary coherent state, i.e., a nontrivial standing wave state is observed and characterized. In this state, oscillators inside the coherent clusters are not frequency-locked as they would be in the usual standing wave state. Instead, their average frequencies are locked to a constant. The critical coupling strength from the incoherent state to the nontrivial standing wave state can be obtained by performing linear stability analysis. The theoretical results are supported by the numerical simulations.

Global and partial synchronization are the two distinctive forms of synchronization in coupled oscillators and have been well studied in the past decades. Recent attention on synchronization is focused on the chimera state (CS) and explosive synchronization (ES), but little attention has been paid to their relationship. We here study this topic by presenting a model to bridge these two phenomena, which consists of two groups of coupled oscillators and its coupling strength is adaptively controlled by a local order parameter. We find that this model displays either CS or ES in two limits. In between the two limits, this model exhibits both CS and ES, where CS can be observed for a fixed coupling strength and ES appears when the coupling is increased adiabatically. Moreover, we show both theoretically and numerically that there are a variety of CS basin patterns for the case of identical oscillators, depending on the distributions of both the initial order parameters and the initial average phases. This model suggests a way to easily observe CS, in contrast to others models having some (weak or strong) dependence on initial conditions.

Two decades ago, a phenomenon resembling Landau damping was described in the synchronization of globally coupled oscillators: the evidence of a regime where the order parameter decays when linear theory predicts neutral stability for the incoherent state. We here show that such an effect is far more generic, as soon as phase oscillators couple to their mean field according to their natural frequencies, being then grouped into two distinct populations of conformists and contrarians. We report the analytical solution of this latter situation, which allows determining the critical coupling strength and the stability of the incoherent state, together with extensive numerical simulations that fully support all theoretical predictions. The relevance of our results is discussed in relationship to collective phenomena occurring in polarized social systems.