Taming desynchronized bursting with delays in the Macaque cortical network

Inhibitory coupled bursting Hindmarsh—Rose neurons are considered as constitutive units of the Macaque cortical network. In the absence of information transmission delay the bursting activity is desynchronized, giving rise to spatiotemporally disordered dynamics. This paper shows that the introduction of finite delays can lead to the synchronization of bursting and thus to the emergence of coherent propagating fronts of excitation in the space-time domain. Moreover, it shows that the type of synchronous bursting is uniquely determined by the delay length, with the transitions from one type to the other occurring in a step-like manner depending on the delay. Interestingly, as the delay is tuned close to the transition points, the synchronization deteriorates, which implies the coexistence of different bursting attractors. These phenomena can be observed by different but fixed coupling strengths, thus indicating a new role for information transmission delays in realistic neuronal networks.