A Computational Study of a Spatially Continuum Mean Field Model Capturing Loss of Consciousness and the Emergence of Alpha and Gamma Rhythmic Activity in the Neocortex

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the spatio-temporal mean field model developed by Liley et al. [1] in order to advance our understanding of the wide effects of pharmacological agents and anesthetics. Specifically, we use the spatio-temporal mean field model in [1] for capturing the electrical activity in the neocortex to computationally study the emergence of α and γ-band rhythmic activity in the brain. We show that α oscillations in the solutions of the model appear globally across the neocortex, whereas γ oscillations can emerge locally as a result of a bifurcation in the dynamics of the model. We solve the dynamic equations of the model using a finite element solver package and show that our results verify the predictions made by bifurcation analysis.