Connectivities and Synchronous Firing in Cortical Neuronal Networks

Abstract

Network connectivities ($\overline{k}$) of cortical neural cultures are studied by synchronized firing and determined from measured correlations between fluorescence intensities of firing neurons. The bursting frequency ($f$) during synchronized firing of the networks is found to be an increasing function of $\overline{k}$. With $f$ taken to be proportional to $\overline{k}$, a simple random model with a $\overline{k}$ dependent connection probability $p(\overline{k})$ has been constructed to explain our experimental findings successfully.