EMERGENT SYNCHRONY IN LOCALLY COUPLED NEURAL OSCILLATORS

The discovery of long range synchronous oscillations in the visual cor tex has triggered much interest in understanding the underlying neural mechanisms and in exploring possible applications of neural oscillati ons, Many neural models thus proposed end up relying on global connect ions, leading to the question of whether lateral connections alone can produce remote synchronization. With a formulation different from fre quently used phase models, we find that locally coupled neural oscilla tors can yield global synchrony. The model employs a previously sugges ted mechanism that the efficacy of the connections is allowed to chang e on a fast time scale, Based on the known connectivity of the visual cortex, the model outputs closely resemble the experimental findings, Furthermore, we illustrate the potential of locally connected oscillat or networks in perceptual grouping and pattern segmentation, which see ms missing in globally connected ones.