Changes in the number of spikes induced by double site stimulation in cultured neocortical neurons

Abstract

It is reported that correlation of inputs in a time domain plays an important role in plasticity of synaptic transmission. Here, we studied how correlated external stimulation modified responses of the cortical networks. Rat neocortical neurons were cultured on electrode-array substrates and activity evoked by electrical stimulation from a single site was compared between before and after double site stimulation. Double site stimulation was applied either simultaneously or with time difference of 500 ms. Either increase or decrease in evoked responses was observed in seven cases of nine samples. The next step will be to understand the correlation between these changes in activity and the applied stimuli.