Abstract
BackgroundCortical neurons display network-level dynamics with unique spatiotemporal patterns that construct the backbone of processing information signals and contribute to higher functions. Recent years have seen a wealth of research on the characteristics of neuronal networks that are sufficient conditions to activate or cease network functions. Local field potentials (LFPs) exhibit a scale-free and unique event size distribution (i.e., a neuronal avalanche) that has been proven in the cortex across species, including mice, rats, and humans, and may be used as an index of cortical excitability. In the present study, we induced seizure activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with medial thalamic inputs and evaluated the impact of cortical excitability and thalamic inputs on network-level dynamics. We measured LFPs from multi-electrode recordings in mouse cortical slices and isoflurane-anesthetized rats.ResultsThe ACC activity exhibited a neuronal avalanche with regard to avalanche size distribution, and the slope of the power-law distribution of the neuronal avalanche reflected network excitability in vitro and in vivo. We found that the slope of the neuronal avalanche in seizure-like activity significantly correlated with cortical excitability induced by γ-aminobutyric acid system manipulation. The thalamic inputs desynchronized cingulate seizures and affected the level of cortical excitability, the modulation of which could be determined by the slope of the avalanche size.ConclusionsWe propose that the neuronal avalanche may be a tool for analyzing cortical activity through LFPs to determine alterations in network dynamics.
Highlights
Cortical neurons display network-level dynamics with unique spatiotemporal patterns that construct the backbone of processing information signals and contribute to higher functions
A threshold was set on the high-pass filtered sweep of negative Local field potentials (LFPs) to detect the active neuronal responses, which are shown in the middle panels of Figure 1D and E
The time-point selected from the nLFPs of each channel at which the nLFPs exceeded the specific threshold is marked as a digital unit in the lower panels of Figure 1D and E
Summary
Cortical neurons display network-level dynamics with unique spatiotemporal patterns that construct the backbone of processing information signals and contribute to higher functions. Local field potentials (LFPs) exhibit a scale-free and unique event size distribution (i.e., a neuronal avalanche) that has been proven in the cortex across species, including mice, rats, and humans, and may be used as an index of cortical excitability. The rules for signal-transferring processing generally include spatial and temporal correlations and coherence, and these rules are broadly used in the analysis of the EEG under spontaneous cortical activity in clinical examinations and animal studies. The spatial and temporal properties of these phenomena can be described by mathematical models, the neuronal avalanche, which was proposed by Plenz and Beggs, and could be a potential model to evaluate network dynamics [6]. Recent studies indicated that the neuronal avalanche could be found in both in vitro and in vivo recording systems [7,8,9,10]
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