Impact of time-periodic coupling strength on the firing regularity of a scale-free network

In this paper, the effects of time-periodic coupling on the firing regularity of a scale-free network (SF), consisting of stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley neurons, have been investigated depending on ion channel noise. The effects of both the frequency and the amplitude of periodic coupling on the firing regularity have been tackled, separately. It is seen from the obtained results that the firing (spiking) regularity shows resonance like behavior depending on ion channel noise when the frequency of the periodic coupling equals integer multiple of the sub threshold oscillation frequency of H-H neurons. Additionally, it is determined that this resonance is maximal at an optimal value of the amplitude of the periodic coupling strength.