Analysis of synfire chains

The biological implications of synfire chain neural networks are explored by studying two idealized models. In the first a network model is proposed with binary firing neurons and parallel updating. This model can be solved exactly in the thermodynamic limit using mean field theory. An explicit equation for the capacity is obtained. In the second model the synchrony of the pulse of activity along a synfire chain is investigated in the context of simple integrate-and-fire neurons. It is found that under natural assumptions a near synchronous wave of activity can stably propagate along a synfire chain. The relevance of this result to real systems is discussed. 1 Introduction Synfire chains have been proposed by Abeles 1, 2 as a model of cortical function. Interest in them has grown because they provide an explanation for otherwise mysterious measurements of precise spike timing. A synfire chain consists of small pools of neurons linked together in a feedforward chain so that a wave of...