Synchronization and Bifurcation Phenomena in Inhibitory Neurons with Gap-junction

Abstract

Electrical coupling has been discovered extensively between certain neurons in some regions of the brain. They are also coupled by bi-directional or uni-directional inhibitory synapses. However, the relationship between synchronous firing of them and different functional roles of each coupling have not been revealed perfectly. To clarify the above problem, we investigate bifurcation phenomena in coupled neuron models interconnected by both electrical and inhibitory synapses. As a result, we show that coupled neurons show in-phase, anti-phase solutions and complex behavior by the interaction between electrical and inhibitory synapses and that large scale network can show irregular switching between in-phase and anti-phase solutions