Transmission of pacemaker signal in a small world neuronal networks: temperature effects

The environmental temperature plays a crucial role in determining the behavior of any dynamical system. In particular, living organisms are characterized by a specific value of temperature, which ensures their normal functioning. In this paper, the effect of temperature on signal transmission of a pacemaker neuron is investigated using a small-world neuronal networks in which the pacemaker is stimulated by a square-wave signal. We observe that signal propagation may be significantly enhanced at intermediate temperatures, i.e., temperature favors the propagation of the rhythm of the pacemaker to the whole neuronal network. Furthermore, a rich dynamics is observed, including spiking and bursting activities, as well as full and remote synchronization. We also find that signal propagation crucially depends on the strength of the coupling. Our findings provide new insights on the system dynamics, and improve our understanding of the optimal temperature observed in experiments involving living biological systems.