Figure 1. Cortical Microcircuit Models.

Shown in order of increasing complexity are three neural mass models representing a cortical microcircuit. Excitatory stellate neural masses are purple, pyramidal masses green, and inhibitory masses are red. The excitatory Wilson-Cowan unit is a brown color to reflect that it is a combination of stellate and pyramidal cells. The Wang-Knosche microcircuit can be divided into three layers: the supragranular layer composed of the top pyramidal and inhibitory neural masses, layer 4 composed of the excitatory stellate neural mass, and the infragranular (deep) layer composed of the bottom pyramidal and inhibitory neural masses. The Wang-Knosche model shows the connections used in the LSNM. Connection weights for the Wilson-Cowan microcircuit listed in Table 2A and the Wang-Knosche microcircuit are detailed in Table 2B. Black arrows indicate excitatory connections, red arrows denote inhibitory connections.