The quantities ϕab are the fields propagating to population a from population b. Dashed lines represent inhibitory connections. (a) Corticothalamic model including excitatory (e), mid-range (m), inhibitory (i), reticular (r), specific relay (s) and external non-specific (n) populations. (b) Corticothalamic model including excitatory (e), inhibitory (i), reticular (r), specific relay (s), and external (n) populations. (c) Cortical model comprising excitatory (e) and inhibitory (i) cortical populations plus an external input field from a subcortical population (s). (d) Purely excitatory (e) cortical model with input from a subcortical population (s).