What is runaway excitation? Can someone give me a brief explanation of this term? Found it in a paper but there doesn't seem to be an explanation that is consistent out there to my knowledge.
When I have used (or seen) this term, it usually means that recurrent excitatory connections in a network have become stronger than the inhibitory feedback. This means that excitatory activity will grow stronger and stronger, without inhibitory influences to keep it in check. Eventually, the activity within the network will be limited only by spike-rate saturation. This type of network configuration is sometimes used as a model for an epileptic seizure.