Neural circuits display complex activity patterns both spontaneously and when responding to a stimulus or generating a motor output. How are these two forms of activity related? We develop a procedure called FORCE learning for modifying synaptic strengths either external to or within a model neural network to change chaotic spontaneous activity into a wide variety of desired activity patterns. ...

The effect of the synaptic plasticity on the dynamics of a large neural network is studied. Our approach is analytic but inspired by the data, both simulated and experimental. We explain formation of the small strongly connected assemblies within a dynamical network following Hebb's rule. Also, we find the conditions for the synchrony effect in the stochastic network in the absence of large syn...

In self-organized criticality (SOC) models, as well in standard phase transitions, is only present for vanishing external fields $h \to 0$. Considering that this rarely the case natural systems, such a restriction poses challenge to explanatory power of these models. Besides that, models dissipative systems like earthquakes, forest fires, and neuronal networks, there no true critical behavior, ...