Frequency-domain order parameters for the burst and spike synchronization transitions of bursting neurons

We are interested in characterization of synchronization transitions of bursting neurons in the frequency domain. Instantaneous population firing rate (IPFR) $$R(t)$$R(t), which is directly obtained from the raster plot of neural spikes, is often used as a realistic collective quantity describing population activities in both the computational and the experimental neuroscience. For the case of spiking neurons, a realistic time-domain order parameter, based on $$R(t)$$R(t), was introduced in our recent work to characterize the spike synchronization transition. Unlike the case of spiking neurons, the IPFR $$R(t)$$R(t) of bursting neurons exhibits population behaviors with both the slow bursting and the fast spiking timescales. For our aim, we decompose the IPFR $$R(t)$$R(t) into the instantaneous population bursting rate $$R_b(t)$$Rb(t) (describing the bursting behavior) and the instantaneous population spike rate $$R_s(t)$$Rs(t) (describing the spiking behavior) via frequency filtering, and extend the realistic order parameter to the case of bursting neurons. Thus, we develop the frequency-domain bursting and spiking order parameters which are just the bursting and spiking “coherence factors” $$\beta _b$$βb and $$\beta _s$$βs of the bursting and spiking peaks in the power spectral densities of $$R_b$$Rb and $$R_s$$Rs (i.e., “signal to noise” ratio of the spectral peak height and its relative width). Through calculation of $$\beta _b$$βb and $$\beta _s$$βs, we obtain the bursting and spiking thresholds beyond which the burst and spike synchronizations break up, respectively. Consequently, it is shown in explicit examples that the frequency-domain bursting and spiking order parameters may be usefully used for characterization of the bursting and the spiking transitions, respectively.