{
  "abstract": "Brain states such as sleep, seizures, and resting wakefulness are often described in terms of transitions between distinct population states. Biophysically inspired mean-field models that couple neuronal firing statistics to slow ionic homeostasis provide a mechanistic bridge between detailed single-neuron physiology and macroscopic brain activity. Here we examine this issue in a biophysical mean-field model of cortical populations driven by potassium exchange and compare its dynamical repertoire with a matched spiking network across six physiological and pathological regimes. The fast subsystem contains a substantial region in which low- and high-activity fixed points coexist, but this conditional bistability is not inherited by the physiological resting branch of the complete slow-fast system. A generic fast-slow calculation identifies how feedback through a dynamical ionic variable changes the stability conditions of the fast subsystem, and an exact equilibrium reduction of the KIonEx-MF equations yields a single equilibrium on the physiological resting branch over the range examined. This resting state is excitable: perturbations generate intermittent synchronized events in both the mean-field and spiking-network descriptions. The results show how slow ionic dynamics can reshape conclusions drawn from a frozen fast subsystem and provide noise-driven excitability as an alternative route to spontaneous population transitions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Aix-Marseille University"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "S. Chatterjee"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Maschke"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Petkoski"
    },
    {
      "name": "H. Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "D. Depannemaecker"
    },
    {
      "name": "V. Jirsa"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2fnwkn7azyvyn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.22.760893",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.22.760893v1.full",
  "id": "2fnwkn7azyvyn",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.22.760893v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural dynamics and brain function"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223406628",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.22.760893v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2fnwkn7azyvyn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:20Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.22.760893",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.22.760893v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Slow Ionic Dynamics Reshape Bistability in a Biophysical Mean-Field Model of Brain Activity",
  "title_text": "Slow Ionic Dynamics Reshape Bistability in a Biophysical Mean-Field Model of Brain Activity",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:29:20Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2fnwkn7azyvyn",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}