We investigated the influence of efficacy of synaptic interaction on firing synchronization in excitatory neuronal networks. We found spike death phenomena, namely, the state of neurons transits from limit cycle to fixed point or transient state. The
phenomena occur under the perturbation of excitatory synaptic interaction that has a high efficacy. We showed that the decrease of synaptic current results in spike death through depressing the feedback of sodium ionic current. In the networks with spike death property the degree of synchronization is lower and unsensitive to the heterogeneity of neurons. The mechanism of the influence is that the transition of neuron state disrupts the adjustment of the rhythm of neuron oscillation and prevents further increase of firing synchronization.
The response of degree-correlated scale-free attractor networks to stimuli is studied. We show that degree-correlated scale-free networks are robust to random stimuli as well as the uncorrelated scale-free networks, while assortative (disassortative)
scale-free networks are more (less) sensitive to directed stimuli than uncorrelated networks. We find that the degree-correlation of scale-free networks makes the dynamics of attractor systems different from uncorrelated ones. The dynamics of correlated scale-free attractor networks result in the effects of degree correlation on the response to stimuli.
