  Neurons modeled by the Rulkov map display a variety of dynamic regimes that
include tonic spikes and chaotic bursting. Here we study an ensemble of
bursting neurons coupled with the Watts-Strogatz small-world topology. We
characterize the sequences of bursts using the symbolic method of time-series
analysis known as ordinal analysis, which detects nonlinear temporal
correlations. We show that the probabilities of the different symbols
distinguish different dynamical regimes, which depend on the coupling strength
and the network topology. These regimes have different spatio-temporal
properties that can be visualized with raster plots.
