Analysis of sequential changes of spontaneous electrical activity in a cultured neuronal network -for a preparation of a living core of a neurorobot system

Abstract

To elucidate the information processing in the brain, it is important to analyze the stability of the activity in a neuronal network for a long-term In addition it is also important to clarify the interaction between the neuronal activity and inputs from external environment. For this purpose, we are developing a neurorobot, performing organ-like behavior based on the response patterns generated by applying current stimulation to the living neuronal network.For providing a living core unit of the neurorobot system, we should clarify the basic characteristics of developmental changes of the network activity. We examined the temporal changes in spontaneous activity patterns from the start of culture in the neural network using the extracellular potential multisites-measurement system. As a result, the number of firing rate in entire network increased from the start of culture, while the number of autonomous-activity-detecting-channels decreased after days in vitro (DIV20) and the number of firing sites increased significantly. The result suggests that the mature neuronal network with over DIV20 is suitable for the stable living neuronal core for the neurorobot system.