OSCILLATOR DEATH IN SYSTEMS OF COUPLED NEURAL OSCILLATORS

Phase-locking in a system of oscillators that are weakly coupled can be predicted by examining a related system in which the coupling is averaged over the oscillator cycle. This fails if the coupling is large. It is shown that in the presence of large interactions, a pair or a chain of oscillators may develop a new stable equilibrium state that corresponds to the cessation of oscillation. This phenomenon is robust for neural type interactions and does not happen in systems that are weakly coupled.