Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2012
In this work we discuss and analyze spiking patterns in a generic mathematical model oftwo coupled non-identical nonlinear oscillators supplied with a spike-timing dependentplasticity (STDP) mechanism. Spiking patterns in the system are shown to converge to aphase-locked state in a broad range of parameters. Precision of the phase locking, i.e.the amplitude of relative phase deviations from a given reference, depends on the naturalfrequencies of oscillators and, additionally, on parameters of the STDP law. Thesedeviations can be optimized by appropriate tuning of gains (i.e. sensitivity tospike-timing mismatches) of the STDP mechanisms. The deviations, however, can not be madearbitrarily small neither by mere tuning of STDP gains nor by adjusting synaptic weights.Thus if accurate phase-locking in the system is required then an additional tuningmechanism is generally needed. We found that adding a very simple adaptation dynamics inthe form of slow fluctuations of the base line in the STDP mechanism enables accuratephase tuning in the system with arbitrary high precision. The scheme applies to systems inwhich individual oscillators operate in the oscillatory mode. If the dynamics ofoscillators becomes bistable then relative phase may fail to converge to a given valuegiving rise to the emergence of complex spiking sequences.