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A coupla ducks: slow currents, canards, clustering, and weak coupling
Mathematical Biology| Speaker: | Bard Ermentrout, University of Pittsburgh |
| Location: | 1147 MSB |
| Start time: | Wed, May 27 2009, 3:10PM |
A recent interneuron model by Erisir et al (J. neurophys, 1999) introduces a slow potassium current which at low currents has the effect of producing mixed mode oscillations (MMO). When such neurons are coupled via gap junctions they form clustered states. We analyze this by considering the phase resetting curves of these neurons when in the MMO state and show that complex phase interactions are a natural consequence. We perform an analysis of the local dynamics to show the existence of a folded canard structure which gives restrictions on the parameters for this to occur.