Novel frequency control in a population of bursting neurons with excitatory synaptic coupling

Excitatory synaptic coupling is commonly described as a form of input that depolarizes a neuron, often leading to an increase in neuronal spike frequency. In this study we show that the effect of excitatory coupling on the oscillation frequency of coupled bursting neurons is context-dependent. In a model system consisting of a population of bursting neurons, we show that increasing extrinsic excitatory input increases the frequency of the bursting oscillation, while increasing the strength of the excitatory coupling among the bursting neurons decreases the frequency of the bursting oscillation.