Hizanidis Johanne, Kouvaris Nikos E, Zamora-López Gorka, Díaz-Guilera Albert, Antonopoulos Chris G
Crete Center for Quantum Complexity and Nanotechnology, Physics Department, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece.
National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos", 15310 Athens, Greece.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jan 22;6:19845. doi: 10.1038/srep19845.
Chimera states, namely the coexistence of coherent and incoherent behavior, were previously analyzed in complex networks. However, they have not been extensively studied in modular networks. Here, we consider a neural network inspired by the connectome of the C. elegans soil worm, organized into six interconnected communities, where neurons obey chaotic bursting dynamics. Neurons are assumed to be connected with electrical synapses within their communities and with chemical synapses across them. As our numerical simulations reveal, the coaction of these two types of coupling can shape the dynamics in such a way that chimera-like states can happen. They consist of a fraction of synchronized neurons which belong to the larger communities, and a fraction of desynchronized neurons which are part of smaller communities. In addition to the Kuramoto order parameter ρ, we also employ other measures of coherence, such as the chimera-like χ and metastability λ indices, which quantify the degree of synchronization among communities and along time, respectively. We perform the same analysis for networks that share common features with the C. elegans neural network. Similar results suggest that under certain assumptions, chimera-like states are prominent phenomena in modular networks, and might provide insight for the behavior of more complex modular networks.
嵌合态，即相干行为与非相干行为的共存，此前已在复杂网络中得到分析。然而，它们在模块化网络中尚未得到广泛研究。在此，我们考虑一个受秀丽隐杆线虫连接组启发的神经网络，它由六个相互连接的群落组成，其中神经元遵循混沌爆发动力学。假设神经元在其群落内部通过电突触连接，在群落之间通过化学突触连接。正如我们的数值模拟所揭示的，这两种耦合的共同作用能够以这样一种方式塑造动力学，使得类嵌合态能够出现。它们由属于较大群落的一部分同步神经元以及属于较小群落的一部分非同步神经元组成。除了Kuramoto序参量ρ之外，我们还采用了其他相干性度量，如类嵌合χ指数和亚稳定性λ指数，它们分别量化了群落之间以及随时间的同步程度。我们对与秀丽隐杆线虫神经网络具有共同特征的网络进行了相同的分析。相似的结果表明，在某些假设下，类嵌合态是模块化网络中的突出现象，并且可能为更复杂的模块化网络的行为提供见解。
