This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Chaos 30, 123130 (2020) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0021420We study patterns of partial synchronization in a network of FitzHugh–Nagumo oscillators with empirical structural connectivity measured in human subjects. We report the spontaneous occurrence of synchronization phenomena that closely resemble the ones seen during epileptic seizures in humans. In order to obtain deeper insights into the interplay between dynamics and network topology, we perform long-term simulations of oscillatory dynamics on different paradigmatic network structures: random networks, regular nonlocally coupled ring networks, ring networks with fractal connectivities, and small-world networks with various rewiring probability. Among these networks, a small-world network with intermediate rewiring probability best mimics the findings achieved with the simulations using the empirical structural connectivity. For the other network topologies, either no spontaneously occurring epileptic-seizure-related synchronization phenomena can be observed in the simulated dynamics, or the overall degree of synchronization remains high throughout the simulation. This indicates that a topology with some balance between regularity and randomness favors the self-initiation and self-termination of episodes of seizure-like strong synchronization.DFG, 163436311, SFB 910: Kontrolle selbstorganisierender nichtlinearer Systeme: Theoretische Methoden und AnwendungskonzepteDFG, 440145547, Komplexe dynamische Netzwerke: Effekte von Heterogenität, Adaptivität und Topologie der KopplungenDFG, 411803875, Dynamik gekoppelter Systeme mit Zeitverzögerungen und deren AnwendungenDFG, 308748074, DFG-RSF: Komplexe dynamische Netzwerke: Effekte von heterogenen, adaptiven und zeitverzögerten KopplungenBMBF, 01Q1001B, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin (BCCN
