Quorum percolation in living neural networks

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Published 22 January 2010 Europhysics Letters Association
, , Citation O. Cohen et al 2010 EPL 89 18008 DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/89/18008

0295-5075/89/1/18008

Abstract

Cooperative effects in neural networks appear because a neuron fires only if a minimal number m>1 of its inputs are excited. The multiple inputs requirement leads to a percolation model termed quorum percolation. The connectivity undergoes a phase transition as m grows, from a network-spanning cluster at low m to a set of disconnected clusters above a critical m. Both numerical simulations and the model reproduce the experimental results well. This allows a robust quantification of biologically relevant quantities such as the average connectivity and the distribution of connections pk from different neural densities.

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10.1209/0295-5075/89/18008