Development and validation of a neural population model based on the dynamics of a discontinuous membrane potential neuron model.

The major goal of this study was to develop a population density based model derived from statistical mechanics based on the dynamics of a discontinuous membrane potential neuron model. A secondary goal was to validate this model by comparing results from a direct simulation approach on the one hand and our population based approach on the other hand. Comparisons between the two approaches in the case of a synaptically uncoupled and a synaptically coupled neural population produced satisfactory qualitative agreement in terms of firing rate and mean membrane potential. Reasonable quantitative agreement was also obtained for these variables in performed simulations. The results of this work based on the dynamics of a discontinuous membrane potential neuron model provide a basis to simulate phenomenologically large-scale neuronal networks with a reasonably short computing time.