Spike timing-dependent plasticity induces complexity in the brain

To study neuroplasticity, the capacity of neurons and neural networks to change temporarily or permanently their connections and behavior, we investigate the effects of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) on synchronization in Hodgkin-Huxley neural networks. We consider spike timing-dependent plasticity of excitatory and inhibitory synapses according to the known Hebbian rules for synaptic plasticity. With regard to network architecture, initially the network presents an all-to-all topology, and due to the SDTP the connectivity suffers alteration. With this procedure, we verify that the STDP induces complexity in the brain. In particular, we show that the synchronous behavior has a dependence on the initial conditions in the plastic brain and, in addition, when a perturbation is included, we show that the plastic brain is able to present bistability: synchronous and non synchronous behaviors.