Noise driven broadening of the neural synchronisation transition in stage II retinal waves

Based on a biophysical model of retinal Starburst Amacrine Cell (SAC) \cite{karvouniari-gil-etal:19} we analyse here the dynamics of retinal waves, arising during the visual system development. Waves are induced by spontaneous bursting of SACs and their coupling via acetycholine. We show that, despite the acetylcholine coupling intensity has been experimentally observed to change during development \cite{zheng-lee-etal:04}, SACs retinal waves can nevertheless stay in a regime with power law distributions, reminiscent of a critical regime. Thus, this regime occurs on a range of coupling parameters instead of a single point as in usual phase transitions. We explain this phenomenon thanks to a coherence-resonance mechanism, where noise is responsible for the broadening of the critical coupling strength range.