The influence of ion concentrations on the dynamic behavior of the Hodgkin–Huxley model-based cortical network

Action potentials (APs) in the form of very short pulses arise when the cell is excited by any internal or external stimulus exceeding the critical threshold of the membrane. During AP generation, the membrane potential completes its natural cycle through typical phases that can be formatted by ion channels, gates and ion concentrations, as well as the synaptic excitation rate. On the basis of the Hodgkin–Huxley cell model, a cortical network consistent with the real anatomic structure is realized with randomly interrelated small population of neurons to simulate a cerebral cortex segment. Using this model, we investigated the effects of Na⁺ and K⁺ ion concentrations on the outcome of this network in terms of regularity, phase locking, and synchronization. The results suggested that Na⁺ concentration does slightly affect the amplitude but not considerably affects the other parameters specified by depolarization and repolarization. K⁺ concentration significantly influences the form, regularity, and synchrony of the network-generated APs. No previous study dealing directly with the effects of both Na⁺ and K⁺ ion concentrations on regularity and synchronization of the simulated cortical network-generated APs, allowing for the comparison of results obtained using our methods, was encountered in the literature. The results, however, were consistent with those obtained through studies concerning resonance and synchronization from another perspective and with the information revealed through physiological and pharmacological experiments concerning changing ion concentrations or blocking ion channels. Our results demonstrated that the regularity and reliability of brain functions have a strong relationship with cellular ion concentrations, and suggested the management of the dynamic behavior of the cellular network with ion concentrations.