Cortical synfire-activity: Configuration space and survival probability

The synfire hypothesis states that under appropriate conditions volleys of synchronized spikes (pulse packets) can propagate through chains of groups of neurons. Here, we present results from network simulations, taking full account of the variability in pulse packet realizations. We repeatedly stim ulated a synfire-chain of model neurons and estimated the activity (a) and response-jitter (sigma) for each group in the chain over many trials. The s urvival probability of the activity was assessed for each point in the (a, sigma)-space. The results agree well with our earlier predictions based on single neuron properties and a deterministic state-space analysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.