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Dissociated networks of neurons typically exhibit bursting behavior, whose features are strongly influenced by the age of the culture, by chemical/electrical stimulation or by environmental conditions. To help the experimenter in identifying the changes possibly induced by specific protocols, we developed a self-adapting method for detecting both bursts and(More)
Dissociated cortical neurons from rat embryos cultured onto micro-electrode arrays exhibit characteristic patterns of electrophysiological activity, ranging from isolated spikes in the first days of development to highly synchronized bursts after 3-4 weeks in vitro. In this work we analyzed these features by considering the approach proposed by the(More)
Multi-channel acquisition from neuronal networks, either in vivo or in vitro, is becoming a standard in modern neuroscience in order to infer how cell assemblies communicate. In spite of the large diffusion of micro-electrode-array-based systems, researchers usually find it difficult to manage the huge quantity of data routinely recorded during the(More)
In last decades, new studies on palaeoclimate, improved analysis of data sets, with a more rigorous evaluation of their quality, and comparisons among data from different sources have led to a better understanding of climate changes. As temperature changes at the surface affect the temperature distribution in the subsurface, ground temperatures are one of(More)
In vitro neuronal cultures exhibit spontaneous electrophysiological activity that can be modulated by chemical stimulation and can be monitored over time by using Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEAs), devices composed by a glass substrate and metal electrodes. Dissociated networks respond to transmitters, their blockers and many other pharmacological substances,(More)
Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) were born to control "actions from thoughts" in order to recover motor capability of patients with impaired functional connectivity between the central and peripheral nervous system. The final goal of our studies is the development of a new proof-of-concept BMI-a neuromorphic chip for brain repair-to reproduce the functional(More)
This Research Topic in " Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience " contains a collection of original contributions and review articles on the hypothesis that the normal, healthy brain resides in a critical state. The hypothesis that brain activity, or specifically, neuronal activity in the cortex, might be critical arose from the premise that a critical brain can(More)
The spontaneous activity of cortical networks is characterized by the emergence of different dynamic states. Although several attempts were accomplished to understand the origin of these dynamics, the underlying factors continue to be elusive. In this work, we specifically investigated the interplay between network topology and spontaneous dynamics within(More)
Uniform and modular primary hippocampal cultures from embryonic rats were grown on commercially available micro-electrode arrays to investigate network activity with respect to development and integration of different neuronal populations. Modular networks consisting of two confined active and inter-connected sub-populations of neurons were realized by(More)
Nowadays, it is widely accepted that structural features of cortical networks are tightly linked to aspects of brain function, playing a crucial role in determining which electrophysiological patterns (and thus, brain states) can and cannot occur. In this work, we investigated the interplay between network topology and spontaneous dynamics within the(More)