发表机构
West University of Timişoara; SUNY New Paltz（蒂米什瓦拉西部大学; 纽约州立大学新帕尔茨分校）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
该研究构建含皮质、丘脑相关群体的四群体Wilson-Cowan模型，发现皮质丘脑回路的节律动力学不仅取决于连接性，还受分布式延迟耦合的时间组织影响，揭示了睡眠相关节律的调控机制。
AI 中文摘要
皮质丘脑回路支持时间尺度相差数个数量级的节律：睡眠纺锤波、非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠的σ波段事件，以及组织纺锤波发生的接近0.02Hz的超慢波动。由于两种情况的解剖结构相同，仅架构无法决定回路表达哪种节律。我们探究回路自身反馈的时间结构是否可以决定。在包含皮质兴奋性和抑制性群体、丘脑中继细胞及丘脑网状核（TRN）的四群体Wilson-Cowan模型中，我们首先确定连接性如何控制振荡行为的可及性，随后引入时间耦合，其形式为弱Gamma分布延迟或离散延迟。我们研究三种不同的连接水平：皮质 recurrent excitation 决定回路是否能振荡；中继-TRN的相互配对决定振荡的位置、配置、维持和终止；网状核自抑制限制振荡范围。接着我们探究这些连接依赖的状态如何受延迟耦合影响。尽管延迟不会改变平衡点本身，但会大幅改变其稳定性及所得振荡动力学的组织。在弱Gamma整合下，短延迟支持σ波段中与纺锤波兼容的振荡，长延迟则产生接近0.02Hz的更慢状态。离散延迟形式产生质量上不同且更复杂的分岔结构。这些结果共同表明，皮质丘脑回路的动力学不仅取决于其连接性，还取决于回路内相互作用的时间组织。
英文摘要
The corticothalamic circuit supports rhythms with timescales that differ by orders of magnitude: sleep spindles, the sigma-band events of non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep, and infra-slow fluctuations near 0.02Hz that organize when spindles occur. Because the anatomy is the same in both cases, architecture alone cannot determine which rhythm the circuit expresses. We ask whether the temporal structure of the circuit's own feedback can. In a four-population Wilson--Cowan model comprising cortical excitatory and inhibitory populations, thalamic relay cells, and the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), we first establish how connectivity controls access to oscillatory behavior, and then introduce temporal coupling as either a weak Gamma distributed delay or a discrete delay. We investigate three distinct connectivity levels: recurrent cortical excitation gates whether the circuit can oscillate at all, the reciprocal relay-TRN pair determines where the oscillation lies and how it is configured, sustained, and terminated, and reticular self-inhibition limits its extent. We then examine how these connectivity-dependent regimes are affected by delayed coupling. Although delay does not change the equilibria themselves, it can substantially alter their stability and the organization of the resulting oscillatory dynamics. Under weak Gamma integration, short delays support spindle-compatible oscillations in the sigma band, while longer delays give rise to a much slower regime near 0.02Hz. The discrete-delay formulation produces a qualitatively different and more complex bifurcation structure. Together, these results show that the dynamics of the corticothalamic circuit depend not only on its connectivity, but also on the temporal organization of interactions within the circuit.
Comments37 pages, 16 figures
