Mj. Odonovan et N. Chub, POPULATION BEHAVIOR AND SELF-ORGANIZATION IN THE GENESIS OF SPONTANEOUS RHYTHMIC ACTIVITY BY DEVELOPING SPINAL NETWORKS, SEMINARS IN CELL & DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY, 8(1), 1997, pp. 21-28
During development spinal networks generate recurring episodes of rhyt
hmic bursting that can be recorded from motoneurons and interneurons.
Optical imaging has identified a set of propriospinal interneurons tha
t may be important in the production of this activity. These neurons a
re rhythmically active, are recurrently interconnected and have powerf
ul projections to motoneurons. The excitability of this propriospinal
network is depressed by activity and recovers in the interval between
episodes. These and other observations have been formulated into a qua
litative model in which population behavior and self-organization are
responsible for the spontaneous activity generated by developing spina
l networks.