Multiple and Complex Codimension-2 Bifurcations underlying Post-inhibitory Rebound Spike and Excitability Transition

Neuron exhibits nonlinear dynamics such as excitability transition and post-inhibitory rebound (PIR) spike related to bifurcations, which are associated with information processing, locomotor modulation, or brain disease. PIR spike is evoked by inhibitory stimulation instead of excitatory stimulation, which presents a challenge to the threshold concept. In the present paper, 7 codimension-2 or degenerate bifurcations related to 10 codimension-1 bifurcations are acquired in a neuronal model, which presents the bifurcations underlying the excitability transition and PIR spike. Type I excitability corresponds to saddle-node bifurcation on an invariant cycle (SNIC) bifurcation, and type II excitability to saddle-node (SN) bifurcation or sub-critical Hopf (SubH) bifurcation or sup-critical Hopf (SupH) bifurcation. The excitability transition from type I to II corresponds to the codimension-2 bifurcation, Saddle-Node Homoclinic orbit (SNHO) bifurcation, via which SNIC bifurcation terminates and meanwhile big homoclinic orbit (BHom) bifurcation and SN bifurcation emerge. A degenerate bifurcation via which BHom bifurcation terminates and fold limit cycle (LPC) bifurcation emerges is responsible for spiking transition from type I to II, and the roles of other codimension-2 bifurcations (Cusp, Bogdanov-Takens, and Bautin) are discussed. In addition, different from the widely accepted viewpoint that PIR spike is mainly evoked near Hopf bifurcation rather than SNIC bifurcation, PIR spike is identified to be induced near SNIC or BHom or LPC bifurcations, and threshold curves resemble that of Hopf bifurcation. The complex bifurcations present comprehensive and deep understandings of excitability transition and PIR spike, which are helpful for the modulation to neural firing activities and physiological functions.

Developmental function and state transitions of a gene expression oscillator in C. elegans

Gene expression oscillators can structure biological events temporally and spatially. Different biological functions benefit from distinct oscillator properties. Thus, finite developmental processes rely on oscillators that start and stop at specific times; a poorly understood behavior. Here, we have characterized a massive gene expression oscillator comprising >3,700 genes in C. elegans larvae. We report that oscillations initiate in embryos, arrest transiently after hatching and in response to perturbation, and cease in adults. Experimental observation of the transitions between oscillatory and non-oscillatory states at a resolution where we can identify bifurcation points reveals an oscillator operating near a Saddle Node on Invariant Cycle (SNIC) bifurcation. These findings constrain the architecture and mathematical models that can represent this oscillator. They also reveal that oscillator arrests occur reproducibly in a specific phase. Since we find oscillations to be coupled to developmental processes, including molting, this characteristic of SNIC bifurcations thus endows the oscillator with the potential to halt larval development at defined intervals, and thereby execute a developmental checkpoint function.

Changes of Firing Rate Induced by Changes of Phase Response Curve in Bifurcation Transitions

We study dynamical mechanisms responsible for changes of the firing rate during four different bifurcation transitions in the two-dimensional Hindmarsh-Rose (2DHR) neuron model: the saddle node on an invariant circle (SNIC) bifurcation to the supercritical Andronov-Hopf (AH) one, the SNIC bifurcation to the saddle-separatrix loop (SSL) one, the AH bifurcation to the subcritical AH (SAH) one, and the SSL bifurcation to the AH one. For this purpose, we study slopes of the firing rate curve with respect to not only an external input current but also temperature that can be interpreted as a timescale in the 2DHR neuron model. These slopes are mathematically formulated with phase response curves (PRCs), expanding the firing rate with perturbations of the temperature and external input current on the one-dimensional space of the phase [Formula: see text] in the 2DHR oscillator. By analyzing the two different slopes of the firing rate curve with respect to the temperature and external input current, we find that during changes of the firing rate in all of the bifurcation transitions, the calculated slope with respect to the temperature also changes. This is largely dependent on changes in the PRC size that is also related to the slope with respect to the external input current. Furthermore, we find phase transition–like switches of the firing rate with a possible increase of the temperature during the SSL-to-AH bifurcation transition.