Maintained Activity in Neural Nets

Networks of cells having properties similar to those of biological neurons have been demonstrated to be capable of supporting self-maintaining activity, using both theoretical and simulation techniques. Different types of steady-state and oscillatory activity are considered and related to the network parameters: connectivity, latent summation period and decay, refractiveness and threshold decay. It is shown that a mode of activity where identical subsets fire repeatedly and periodically may exist in either of the above cases even when the network is made up of elements quite widely different in properties. The correlation of these results with certain physiological studies, and their possible function, are discussed briefly in the conclusion.