Emergent effects of synaptic connectivity on the dynamics of global and local slow waves in a large-scale thalamocortical network model of the human brain
Fig 6
Effect of cortical excitatory synaptic strength on the network dynamics.
A) Reduction of all cortical connections by 3x. B) Reduction of only connections longer than 10 mm by 5x. All subpanels as in Fig 2. C) Summary of changes in frequency, amplitude, speed, participation, and onset/offset distribution spread when all connections are reduced as shown in (A). Increasing all weights shows little effect while decreasing all weights shows decreased amplitude and participation, with increases in onset/offset distributions (decreases in synchrony). The frequency of slow waves also becomes more variable. Note, Increasing all weights 5x results in the ablation of slow waves due to constant Up state, i.e., SO characteristics cannot be meaningfully quantified. D) Summary of changes in SO characteristics when only long-range connections are reduced as shown in (B). Across all plots, 5 mm is seen to be an inflection point (or “elbow”) where network activity changes.