Simulating neuronal dynamics in fractional adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire models

Abstract We introduce an efficient discretisation of a novel fractional-order adaptive exponential (FrAdEx) integrate-and-fire model, which is used to study the fractional-order dynamics of neuronal activities. The discretisation is based on an extension of L1-type methods that can accurately handle exponential growth and the spiking mechanism of the model. This new method is implicit and uses adaptive time stepping to robustly handle the stiff system that arises due to the exponential term. The implicit nonlinear system can be solved exactly, without iterative methods, making the scheme efficient while maintaining accuracy. We present a complete error model for the numerical scheme that can be extended to other integrate-and-fire models with minor changes. To show the feasibility of our approach, the numerical method has been rigorously validated and used to investigate the diverse spiking oscillations of the model. We observed that the fractional-order model is capable of predicting biophysical activities, which are interpreted through phase diagrams describing the transition from one firing type to another. This simple model shows significant promise, as it has sufficient expressive dynamics to reproduce several features qualitatively from a biophysical dynamical perspective.