GnRH induced Phase Synchrony of Coupled Neurons

Abstract: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is reported to control mammalian reproductive processes. GnRH a neurohormone which is pulsatile released into the pituitary portal blood by hypothalamic GnRH neurons. In the present study, the phase synchronization among a population of identical neurons subjected to a pool of coupling molecules GnRH in extracellular medium via mean-field coupling mechanism is investigated. In the model of populated neurons, GnRH is considered to be autocrine signaling molecule and is taken to be common to all neurons to act as synchronizing agent. The rate of synchrony is estimated qualitatively and quantitatively by measuring phase locking values, time evolution of the phase differences and recurrence plots. Our numerical results show a phase transition like behavior separating the synchronized and desynchronized regimes. We also investigated long range communication or relay information transfer for one dimensional array of such neurons.