In a first step towards the comprehension of neural activity, one should
focus on the stability of the various dynamical states. Even the
characterization of idealized regimes, such as a perfectly periodic spiking
activity, reveals unexpected difficulties. In this paper we discuss a general
approach to linear stability of pulse-coupled neural networks for generic
phase-response curves and post-synaptic response functions. In particular, we
present: (i) a mean-field approach developed under the hypothesis of an
infinite network and small synaptic conductances; (ii) a "microscopic" approach
which applies to finite but large networks. As a result, we find that no matter
how large is a neural network, its response to most of the perturbations
depends on the system size. There exists, however, also a second class of
perturbations, whose evolution typically covers an increasingly wide range of
time scales. The analysis of perfectly regular, asynchronous, states reveals
that their stability depends crucially on the smoothness of both the
phase-response curve and the transmitted post-synaptic pulse. The general
validity of this scenarion is confirmed by numerical simulations of systems
that are not amenable to a perturbative approach.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Frontiers in Computational
Neuroscienc