The effects of connection density on neuronal synchrony in a simulated neuron network

Abstract: As one of our most complex and least understood organs, the brain constitutes a major area of research, and our understanding of the inner workings of the brain is still at an early stage. Research into neural activity can provide better understanding of the brain by looking at patterns of activity within the brain. One form of such pattern is neuronal synchrony which has been shown to have significance in cognitive performance. We first gathered spike time data by simulating a neuronal network with varying degrees of connection density. We then analyzed the spike data using the ISI-distance measure in order to quantify the level of neuronal synchrony in the network at the different degrees of connection density. As the final step, we calculated the Pearson product to get a measure of the correlation between connection density and neuronal synchrony. The results indicated that connection density is strongly negatively correlated to neuronal synchrony, however due to limiting factors the result can not be generalized beyond the specific circumstances of this experiment.