The spread of rate and correlation in stationary cortical networks

The analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of spike cross-correlation in experimental data is an important tool in the exploration of cortical processing. Recent theoretical studies investigated the impact of correlation between a$erents on the spike rate of single neurons and the e$ect of input correlation on the output correlation of pairs of neurons. Here, this knowledge is combined to a model simultaneously describing the spatial propagation of rate and correlation, allowing for an interpretation of its constituents in terms of network activity. The application to an embedded feed-forward network provides insight into the mechanisms stabilizing its asynchronous mode. c © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.