Desynchronization in networks of globally coupled neurons: effects of inertia

Recently extensive work has been done towards understanding the synchronization of globally coupled phase oscillators, and in particular, possible methods for desynchronizing such systems with short sequences of pulses. This is of great importance for the treatment of neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, and can also be used to design new psychophysiological and cognitive experimental techniques. As a progressive step towards a full microscopic model of phase resetting in the brain, and being able to apply the desynchronization medically and experimentally, we demonstrate how these ideas can be generalized and applied to a network of neurons with inertia. Significant sources of inertia and transient dynamics in real neurons arises from dendritic dynamics and synaptical coupling. In this article we analyze the mechanism of full desynchronization in networks of such neurons, and show what effect the presence of inertia has on different stimulation techniques.