Synchronization with an arbitrary phase shift in a pair of synaptically coupled neural oscillators

The phase dynamics of a pair of spiking neural oscillators coupled by a unidirectional nonlinear connection has been studied. The synchronization effect with the controlled relative phase of spikes has been obtained for various coupling strengths and depolarization parameters. It has been found that the phase value is determined by the difference between the depolarization levels of neurons and is independent of the synaptic coupling strength. The synchronization mechanism has been studied by means of the construction and analysis of one-dimensional phase maps. The phase locking effect for spikes has been interpreted in application to the synaptic plasticity in neurobiology.