Firing patterns of long-term cultured neuronal network on multi-electrode array

Spontaneous neuronal activity plays an important role in the development and plasticity of brain. To explore the developmental changes in the firing pattern of the neuronal networks in vivo' the hippocampal neurons were cultured on the multi-microelectrode array dish for over 14 weeks and the spontaneous activity was recorded. The results showed that random firing was observed in the 1st week and transformed into synchronized activity after two weeks' then tightly synchronized activity appeared in week 2 to 7 and finally the activities transformed into the random firing pattern. These results suggested three stages in the long-term development of neuronal network in vivo: the stage for connection, the stage of synchronized activity and the mature stage. Synchronized firing shown by spontaneous activity was an important phenomenon in high density cultured neuronal and transformed patterns during development. * Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 60025514), Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Young Scholars (Grant No. 30328014) and Major Program of Science and Technology Research of Ministry of Education (Grant No. 10420)