The role of coupling and external current in two coupled Hodgkin–Huxley neurons

This research studies the properties of two coupled Hodgkin-Huxley neurons. The influence of coupling strength as well as individual parameters of the neurons (i.e., initial conditions and external current values) have been studied. A Pearson correlation coefficient is used to estimate the synchrony degree between the neurons. It was found that the two neurons can be synchronized fairly easily in different regimes based on the combination of parameters: for some cases, the neurons are synchronous in a self-oscillating regime, but for other combinations, a single-spike regime becomes prevalent. It was also discovered that the synchronization regime can be controlled both by the external current value of each neuron and the coupling strength value. The obtained results can be profitable for future research of complex networks of artificial neurons.