Causal and Structural Connectivity of Pulse-Coupled Nonlinear Networks

We study the reconstruction of structural connectivity for a general class of pulse-coupled nonlinear networks and show that the reconstruction can be successfully achieved through linear Granger causality (GC) analysis. Using spike-triggered correlation of whitened signals, we obtain a quadratic relationship between GC and the network couplings, thus establishing a direct link between the causal connectivity and the structural connectivity within these networks. Our work may provide insight into the applicability of GC in the study of the function of general nonlinear networks.