TY  - JOUR
A1  - Yu, Shan
A1  - Huang, Debin
A1  - Singer, Wolf
A1  - Nikolić, Danko
T1  - A small world of neuronal synchrony
T2  - Cerebral cortex
N2  - A small-world network has been suggested to be an efficient solution for achieving both modular and global processing-a property highly desirable for brain computations. Here, we investigated functional networks of cortical neurons using correlation analysis to identify functional connectivity. To reconstruct the interaction network, we applied the Ising model based on the principle of maximum entropy. This allowed us to assess the interactions by measuring pairwise correlations and to assess the strength of coupling from the degree of synchrony. Visual responses were recorded in visual cortex of anesthetized cats, simultaneously from up to 24 neurons. First, pairwise correlations captured most of the patterns in the population´s activity and, therefore, provided a reliable basis for the reconstruction of the interaction networks. Second, and most importantly, the resulting networks had small-world properties; the average path lengths were as short as in simulated random networks, but the clustering coefficients were larger. Neurons differed considerably with respect to the number and strength of interactions, suggesting the existence of "hubs" in the network. Notably, there was no evidence for scale-free properties. These results suggest that cortical networks are optimized for the coexistence of local and global computations: feature detection and feature integration or binding.
KW  - ising model
KW  - maximum entropy
KW  - orientation selectivity
KW  - parallel recording
KW  - scale free
KW  - visual cortex
Y1  - 2008
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6018
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-60170
SN  - 1460-2199
SN  - 1047-3211
N1  - © 2008 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 18
IS  - 12
SP  - 2891
EP  - 2901
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -