Stability analysis of a single neuron model with delay (Q1405175)

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic behaviour and the numerical approximation of solutions of initial value problems for the delay differential equation \( x'(t)= - d x(t) + a f( x(t)) + b f( x (t - \tau)) + I\) (1) where \( d>0, a, b, \) and \(I\) are given constants, \( f(x)= ( |x+1|- |x-1|)/2 \) and \( \tau >0\) the constant delay. This equation arises in the single neuron model with delay. It is proved that if the above constants satisfy \( d > a + |b|+|I|\) then for any initial condition \( x(t) = \varphi (t), t \in [- \tau, 0]\) the corresponding solution satisfies \( \lim_{ t \to + \infty} x(t)= I/(d-a-b)\). Further, if \( \varphi (t) = \text{const.}\) and \( b>0\) then every solution of equation (1) tends to a constant equilibrium. With these results a complete description of the asymptotic behaviour of solutions is given. Concerning the numerical approximation of the solutions of (1) two numerical schemes are proposed and the results of some numerical experiments are presented to show the convergence of these schemes.