Stability and bifurcation of a two-neuron network with distributed time delays (Q974561)

The paper investigates the stability and bifurcations of the trivial fixed point and the existence of nontrivial equilibria for a system of two differential equations with distributed time delay, which models a Hopfield-type neural network of two identical units coupled with delay and receiving a self-feedback. The local asymptotic stability of the trivial fixed point is examined based on the eigenvalues of the corresponding characteristic equation. In particular, necessary and sufficient conditions on the parameters of coupling and self-feedback strengths are derived and the corresponding parameter regions of stability are delineated. Parameter curves of Hopf bifurcations of the trivial fixed point are obtained and the criticality of the bifurcations is revealed based on the normal form theory. For symmetrically coupled neurons, it is shown that the trivial fixed point can lose a stability via a pitchfork bifurcation. The theoretical results are illustrated on examples with numerical simulations.