Complex Dynamics of Propagating Waves in a Two-Dimensional Neural Field

Propagating waves with complex dynamics have been widely observed in neural population activity. To understand their formation mechanisms, we investigate a type of two-dimensional neural field model by systematically varying its recurrent excitatory and inhibitory inputs. We show that the neural field model exhibits a rich repertoire of dynamical activity states when the relevant strength of excitation and inhibition is increased, ranging from localized rotating and traveling waves to global waves. Particularly, near the transition between stable states of rotating and traveling waves, the model exhibits a bistable state; that is, both the rotating and the traveling waves can exist, and the inclusion of noise can induce spontaneous transitions between them. Furthermore, we demonstrate that when there are multiple propagating waves, they exhibit rich collective propagation dynamics with variable propagating speeds and trajectories. We use techniques from time series analysis such detrended fluctuation analysis to characterize the effect of the strength of excitation and inhibition on these collective dynamics, which range from purely random motion to motion with long-range spatiotemporal correlations. These results provide insights into the possible contribution of excitation and inhibition toward a range of previously observed spatiotemporal wave phenomena.