Induced functional connectivity in hippocampal cultures using Hebbian electrical stimulation

Abstract

In this article a bio-hybrid system based on neural cultured is described and the learning processes for programming this biological neuroprocessor are revised. Different authors proposed many different learning techniques for managing neural plasticity, however it is necessary to provide a formal methodology for verifying this induced plasticity and validating this bio-hybrid programming paradigm. We used different electrical stimulation protocols, such as low-frequency current stimulation and tetanic voltage stimulation, on dissociated cultures of hippocampal cells to study how neuronal cultures could be trained with this kind of stimulations. We show that persistent and synchronous stimulation of adjacent electrodes may be used for creating adjacent physical or logical connections in the connectivity graph following Hebb׳s Law.