State space analysis of synchronous spiking in cortical neural networks

Recent proposals that information in cortical neurons may be encoded by pre cise spike timing have been challenged by the assumption that neurons in vi vo can only operate in a noisy fashion, due to large fluctuations in synapt ic input activity. Here, we show that despite the background, volleys of pr ecisely synchronized action potentials can stably propagate within a model network of basic integrate-and-fire neurons. The construction of an iterati ve mapping for the transmission of synchronized spikes between groups of ne urons allows for a two-dimensional state space analysis. An attractor, yiel ding stable spiking precision in the (sub-)millisecond range, governs the s ynchronization dynamics. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .