Stimulus tuning in a reduced model for neural competition leads to
mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs), a temporal pattern featuring alternating
small- and large-amplitude oscillations. Key ingredients for the
generation of MMOs are mutual inhibition, slow negative-feedback in the
form of adaptation, and nonlinearity of the gain function. Exploiting a
normal form calculation, we show that MMOs occur due to the interaction of
canard and singular Hopf mechanisms as the stimulus strength approaches a
critical regime. We show then that local excitation and lateral
inhibition-type coupling combined with the underlying MMOs produces complex
spatio-temporal patterns in larger networks.
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