Chaotic Dynamics and Fractal Geometry in Ring Lattice Systems of Nonchaotic Rulkov Neurons

This paper investigates the complex dynamics and fractal attractors that arise in a 60-dimensional ring lattice system of electrically coupled nonchaotic Rulkov neurons. While networks of chaotic Rulkov neurons have been widely studied, systems of nonchaotic Rulkov neurons have not been extensively explored due to the piecewise complexity of the nonchaotic Rulkov map. Here, we find that rich dynamics emerge from the electrical coupling of regular-spiking Rulkov neurons, including chaotic spiking, synchronized chaotic bursting, and synchronized hyperchaos. By systematically varying the electrical coupling strength between neurons, we also uncover general trends in the maximal Lyapunov exponent across the system’s dynamical regimes. By means of the Kaplan–Yorke conjecture, we examine the fractal geometry of the ring system’s high-dimensional chaotic attractors and find that these attractors can occupy as many as 45 of the 60 dimensions of state space. We further explore how variations in chaotic behavior—quantified by the full Lyapunov spectra—correspond to changes in the attractors’ fractal dimensions. This analysis advances our understanding of how complex collective behavior can emerge from the interaction of multiple simple neuron models and highlights the deep interplay between dynamics and geometry in high-dimensional systems.