A computational model of transitions between normal and pathological brain states

Abstract

It is shown that self-activation of discontinuous transformation of sensory signals in the 'cortex-thalamus-reticular thalamic nucleus' network may proceed by various modes, which corresponds to the well-known variety of possible patterns of epileptic activity in the brain. The dynamics of the activity pattern is analyzed within a special three-component model for ensembles of neuron-like elements. Patterns of the spatial activity are considered by the extraction of the simplest features in the original signal, which is the analogue of normal functioning of the cerebral cortex. It is shown that a change in the degree of interdependence among the distributed neuron ensembles gives rise to various kinds of on/off activity modes similar to spike-wave discharges in the cortex.