G J Brewer et al 2009 J. Neural Eng. 6 014001 doi:10.1088/1741-2560/6/1/014001
G J Brewer1,2,4, M D Boehler2, R A Pearson2, A A DeMaris2, A N Ide2 and B C Wheeler3
Show affiliationsNeuronal network output in the cortex as a function of synapse density during development has not been explicitly determined. Synaptic scaling in cortical brain networks seems to alter excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs to produce a representative rate of synaptic output. Here, we cultured rat hippocampal neurons over a three-week period to correlate synapse density with the increase in spontaneous spiking activity. We followed the network development as synapse formation and spike rate in two serum-free media optimized for either (a) neuron survival (Neurobasal/B27) or (b) spike rate (NbActiv4). We found that while synaptophysin synapse density increased linearly with development, spike rates increased exponentially in developing neuronal networks. Synaptic receptor components NR1, GluR1 and GABA-A also increase linearly but with more excitatory receptors than inhibitory. These results suggest that the brain's information processing capability gains more from increasing connectivity of the processing units than increasing processing units, much as Internet information flow increases much faster than the linear number of nodes and connections.
87.19.R- Mechanical and electrical properties of tissues and organs
Issue 1 (February 2009)
Received 25 April 2008, accepted for publication 7 October 2008
Published 22 December 2008
G J Brewer et al 2009 J. Neural Eng. 6 014001
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