Spontaneous synchronous discharges in hippocampal slices. Simulation and experiment

Chaotic oscillations of extracellular potential of field-type nerve tissues are simulated by a 2D coupled map lattice. These tissues, say, the fields of the hippocampus, are represented by neural mass sheets consisting of cur rent sources. The relationship between the source-sink ensembles and the ex tracellular field potential at each discrete instant of time t = 1, 2, ... is described by a single-site map creating chaos. The 2D coupled map lattic e is viewed as a network of diffusively coupled the maps creating spatiotem poral chaos. The conversion of chaotic oscillations into synhronous ones, w hich are typical for epileptiform discharges, is studied. The results obtai ned are in good agreement with those derived from hippocampal slices treate d with picrotoxin.