  We consider the effect of asymmetric temporal delays in a system of two
coupled Hopfield neurons. For couplings of opposite signs, a limit cycle
emerges via a supercritical Hopf bifurcation when the sum of the delays reaches
a critical value. We show that the angular frequency of the limit cycle is
independent of an asymmetry in the delays. However, the delay asymmetry
determines the phase difference between the periodic activities of the two
components. Specifically, when the connection with negative coupling has a
delay much larger than the delay for the positive coupling, the system
approaches in-phase synchrony between the two components. Employing variational
perturbation theory (VPT), we achieve an approximate analytical evaluation of
the phase shift, in good agreement with numerical results.
