  Broadband spontaneous macroscopic neural oscillations are rhythmic cortical
firing which were extensively examined during the last century, however, their
possible origination is still controversial. In this work we show how
macroscopic oscillations emerge in solely excitatory random networks and
without topological constraints. We experimentally and theoretically show that
these oscillations stem from the counterintuitive underlying mechanism - the
intrinsic stochastic neuronal response failures. These neuronal response
failures, which are characterized by short-term memory, lead to cooperation
among neurons, resulting in sub- or several- Hertz macroscopic oscillations
which coexist with high frequency gamma oscillations. A quantitative interplay
between the statistical network properties and the emerging oscillations is
supported by simulations of large networks based on single-neuron in-vitro
experiments and a Langevin equation describing the network dynamics. Results
call for the examination of these oscillations in the presence of inhibition
and external drives.
