Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Several theorists in perception, attention, and memory have suggested that temporal correlation in neural firing patterns (synchrony) could play an important role in processing and learning. Recent neuropsychological evidence demonstrates the wide spread occurrence of synchrony and its stimulus specific nature. Numerous proofs and simulations have demonstrated the ease with which synchrony develops. However, ease of development could be a problem since synchrony is the mechanism behind abnormal processing in epileptic seizures. Previous modeling ignores the role of spatial propagation along the axon. Comparing simulations with and without propagation for a biologically plausible model of neural oscillations, I show that synchrony is far less liable to occur. Using a grid of fully activated cells, the extent of connectivity, impulse amplitude and duration, and natural frequency variability are examined: synchrony is substantially diminished when propagation is included.