Complex activity patterns generated by short-term synaptic plasticity

Abstract

Short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) affects the efficiency of synaptic transmission for persistent presynaptic activities. We consider attractor neural networks, for which the attractors are given, in the absence of STSP, by cell assemblies of excitatory cliques. We show that STSP may transform these attracting states into attractor relics, inducing ongoing transient-state dynamics in terms of sequences of transiently activated cell assemblies, the former attractors. Subsequent cell assemblies may be both disjoint or partially overlapping. It may hence be possible to use the resulting dynamics for the generation of motor control sequences.