Leibniz MMS Days 2020 - Abstract

Hajizadeh, Aida

In search of the dynamics underlying neural adaptation: linking normal modes to brain anatomy

[joint work with Matthias Wolfrum (WIAS), Reinhard König (LIN), Patrick May (LIN), Artur Matysiak (LIN)]

Sensitivity of neuronal responses to the temporal pattern of auditory stimuli is an ubiquitous phenomenon in the auditory cortex (AC). This sensitivity is reflected, for example, in adaptation, the reduction of the response magnitude of auditory neurons to repetitive stimulation. Short-term synaptic depression (STSD) is considered to be a potential candidate underlying adaptation. We examined this hypothesis by using a mechanistic model based on AC anatomy. The model dynamics are described by excitatory and inhibitory state variables of cell populations characterized by nonlinear firing rates. We sought analytical solutions to the system dynamics by linearizing the firing rates and solving the STSD equation using time-scale separation. In this framework, AC is characterized as a network of damped harmonic oscillators (normal modes). We show that adaptation can be accounted for as modulations of these normal modes, and we discuss how the normal modes can be mapped onto AC anatomy.