The effects of time delay on the stochastic resonance in feed-forward-loop neuronal network motifs

The dependence of stochastic resonance in the feed-forward-loop neuronal network motifs on the noise and time delay are studied in this paper. By computational modeling, Izhikevich neuron model with the chemical coupling is used to build the triple-neuron feed-forward-loop motifs with all possible motif types. Numerical results show that the correlation between the periodic subthreshold signal’s frequency and the dynamical response of the network motifs is resonantly dependent on the intensity of additive spatiotemporal noise. Interestingly, the excitatory intermediate neuron could induce intermittent stochastic resonance, whereas the inhibitory one weakens its influence on the intermittent mode. More importantly, it is found that the increasing delays can induce the intermittent appearance of regions of stochastic resonance. Based on the effects of the time delay on the stochastic resonance, the reasons and conditions of such intermittent resonance phenomenon are analyzed.