Frustrated neurons: Energy landscapes and relaxation dynamics in repulsive phase oscillators

Abstract

Geometrical frustration, a central paradigm in condensed matter physics, provides a unifying language for systems in which locally preferred interactions cannot be made globally compatible. Here, we use this language to formulate a minimal theory of frustrated neural timing, mapping repulsively coupled rhythmic units onto antiferromagnetic XY models. Within this framework, the condensed-matter concepts of local constraints, degenerate ground-state manifolds, metastability, and quench dynamics become a concrete diagnostic framework for structured neural phase dynamics. We analyze a hierarchy of geometries: a triangle as the minimal frustrated motif with two chiral 120° timing states, a tetrahedron whose reduced ground-state manifold consists of intersecting continuous branches associated with antipodal pairings, and a kagome lattice on which local constraints define a constrained three-coloring manifold. The kagome lattice reveals the central dynamical result: zero-temperature relaxation suppresses global synchrony but typically selects low-energy metastable torque-balanced states rather than exact ground states. Finally, we show how the phase theory can be carried back towards biophysical neural models by treating it as an effective-interaction target, where geometrical timing frustration is realized through preferred phase lags that become incompatible around closed motifs. This perspective suggests that weak global coherence in neural systems does not necessarily signal disordered activity, but can reflect structured local timing order shaped by a frustrated dynamical landscape.