Relationships between lognormal distributions of neural properties, activity, criticality, and connectivity

Abstract

Relationships between convergence of inputs onto neurons, divergence of outputs from them, synaptic strengths, nonlinear firing response properties, and randomness of axonal ranges are systematically explored by interrelating means and variances of synaptic strengths, firing rates, and soma voltages. When self-consistency is imposed, it is found that broad distributions of synaptic strength are a necessary concomitant of the known massive convergence of inputs to individual neurons, and observed widths of lognormal distributions of synaptic strength and firing rate are explained provided the brain is in a near-critical state, consistent with independent observations. The strongest individual..