Dynamic control for synchronization of separated cortical areas through thalamic relay

Gollo, L. L.; Mirasso, C. R.; Villa, A. E. P.
Neuroimage 52, 947-955 (2010)

Binding of features and information which are processed at different cortical areas
is generally supposed to be achieved by synchrony despite the non-negligible delays
between the cortical areas. In this work we study the dynamics and synchronization
properties of a simplified model of the thalamocortical circuit where different cor-
tical areas are interconnected with a certain delay, that is longer than the internal
time scale of the neurons. Using this simple model we find that the thalamus could
serve as a central subcortical area that is able to generate zero-lag synchrony be-
tween distant cortical areas by means of dynamical relaying (Vicente et al., 2008).
Our results show that the model circuit is able to generate fast oscillations in fre-
quency ranges of the beta and gamma bands triggered by an external input to the
thalamus formed by independent Poisson trains. We propose a control mechanism
to turn “On” and “Off” the synchronization between cortical areas as a function of
the relative rate of the external input fed into dorsal and ventral thalamic neuronal
populations. The current results emphasize the hypothesis that the thalamus could
control the dynamics of the thalamocortical functional networks enabling two sepa-
rated cortical areas to be either synchronized (at zero-lag) or unsynchronized. This
control may happen at a fast time scale, in agreement with experimental data, and
without any need of plasticity or adaptation mechanisms which typically require
longer time scales.


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