Revealing and reshaping attractor dynamics in large networks of cortical neurons.

ABSTRACT: Attractors play a key role in a wide range of processes including learning and memory. Due to recent innovations in recording methods, there is increasing evidence for the existence of attractor dynamics in the brain. Yet, our understanding of how these attractors emerge or disappear in a biological system is lacking. By following the spontaneous network bursts of cultured cortical networks, we are able to define a vocabulary of spatiotemporal patterns and show that they function as discrete attractors in the network dynamics. We show that electrically stimulating specific attractors eliminates them from the spontaneous vocabulary, while they are still robustly evoked by the electrical stimulation. This seemingly paradoxical finding can be explained by a Hebbian-like strengthening of speci

SUBMITTER: Beer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10829997 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature