Neuronal avalanche dynamics and functional connectivity elucidate information propagation in vitro

• Published in: Frontiers in neural circuits Vol. 16; p. 980631
• Main Authors: Heiney, Kristine, Huse Ramstad, Ola, Fiskum, Vegard, Sandvig, Axel, Sandvig, Ioanna, Nichele, Stefano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 15.09.2022; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Avalanches; Complementarity; Computational neuroscience; excitation–inhibition balance; in vitro electrophysiology; microelectrode arrays; Microelectrodes; Nerve Net - physiology; network neuroscience; neural computation; Neural networks; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neuroscience; Propagation; Software; subcritical dynamics; excitation–inhibition balance; network neuroscience; complexity; subcritical dynamics; neural computation; microelectrode arrays; in vitro electrophysiology
• ISSN: 1662-5110; 1662-5110
• DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2022.980631

Cascading activity is commonly observed in complex dynamical systems, including networks of biological neurons, and how these cascades spread through the system is reliant on how the elements of the system are connected and organized. In this work, we studied networks of neurons as they matured over 50 days and evaluated both their dynamics and their functional connectivity structures by observing their electrophysiological activity using microelectrode array recordings. Correlations were obtained between features of their activity propagation and functional connectivity characteristics to elucidate the interplay between dynamics and structure. The results indicate that networks maintain a slightly subcritical state by striking a balance between integration and segregation. Our work demonstrates the complementarity of these two approaches-functional connectivity and avalanche dynamics-in studying information propagation in neurons , which can in turn inform the design and optimization of engineered computational substrates.