Dynamics of neuronal populations: eigenfunction theory; some solvable cases

A novel approach to cortical modelling was introduced by Knight and co-workers in 1996. In their presentation cortical dynamics is formulated in terms of interacting populations of neurons, a perspective that is in part motivated by modern cortical imaging. The approach may be regarded as the application of statistical mechanics to neuronal populations, and the simplest exemplar bears a kinship to the Boltzmann equation of kinetic theory. The disarming simplicity of this linear equation hides the complex behaviour it produces. A purpose of this paper is to investigate and reveal its intricacies by treating a series of solvable special cases. In particular we will focus on issues that relate to the spectral analysis of the underlying operators. A fairly thorough treatment is presented for a simple, but still useful example, that has important consequences for more general situations.