Gain modulation and its effect on neural entrainment

Research in systems neuroscience typically explores the links between phenomena observed at the level of single neurons, and at the circuit or system level. It have been shown that neuromodulators such as dopamine, change the sensitivity (slope) of the neuron input-output function. This effect is known as gain modulation, and is speculated to play a role in pathological neural dynamics observed at the circuit level. Specifically, when comes to deficits in the adjustment of the circuit oscillatory activity to the frequency of the input, known as neural entrainment or brainwave synchronisation.

In this talk I will describe a neural mass model of a cortical circuit that delivers gain modulation. Our experiments show how well and how fast the circuit model entrains to different oscillatory inputs, and suggest that the gain modulation directly affects neural entrainment. The circuit, not only entrains better, but also converges faster to the fully entrained state.