Ordering spatiotemporal chaos in complex thermosensitive neuron networks

We have studied the effect of random long-range connections in chaotic thermosensitive neuron networks with each neuron being capable of exhibiting diverse bursting behaviors, and found stochastic synchronization and optimal spatiotemporal patterns. For a given coupling strength, the chaotic burst-firings of the neurons become more and more synchronized as the number of random connections (or randomness) is increased and, rather, the most pronounced spatiotemporal pattern appears for an optimal randomness. As the coupling strength is increased, the optimal randomness shifts towards a smaller strength. This result shows that random long-range connections can tame the chaos in the neural networks and make the neurons more effectively reach synchronization. Since the model studied can be used to account for hypothalamic neurons of dogfish, catfish, etc., this result may reflect the significant role of random connections in transferring biological information.