Effects of Inhibitory Signal on Criticality in Excitatory-Inhibitory Networks*

Abstract We study the criticality in excitatory-inhibitory networks consisting of excitable elements. We investigate the effects of the inhibitory strength using both numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. We show that the inhibitory strength cannot affect the critical point. The dynamic range is decreased as the inhibitory strength increases. To simulate of decreasing the efficacy of excitation and inhibition which was studied in experiments, we remove excitatory or inhibitory nodes, delete excitatory or inhibitory links, and weaken excitatory or inhibitory coupling strength in critical excitatory-inhibitory network. Decreasing the excitation, the change of the dynamic range is most dramatic as the same as previous experimental results. However, decreasing inhibition has no effect on the criticality in excitatory-inhibitory network .