title: Interfacing in silico and in vitro neuronal networks.
abstract: In this study, an in vitro cortical culture was stimulated according to the activity exhibited by its in silico counterpart. We connected the latter, an artificial spiking neural network (SNN), to the former, a biological network (BNN), via an open-loop (i.e. unidirectional) configuration, with the ultimate goal of establishing a closed-loop bidirectional connection in future studies. We detected network bursts in the SNN and utilized them as triggers for stimulus delivery to the BNN. We analyzed evoked BNN responses to evaluate whether the BNN activity was entrained by the SNN by correlating stimuli and BNN evoked network burst rates at different timescales. We found that this correlation was nearly constant at all timescales, but its magnitude depended on the efficacy of the stimulation source in entraining BNN activity.
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bruzzone
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pasquale
authors.forename: Przemyslaw
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Jacopo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tessadori
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Massobrio
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiappalone
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004566:Electrodes; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D009415:Nerve Net; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D061251:Primary Cell Culture; D051381:Rats