STRENGTHENING OF SYNCHRONIZED ACTIVITY BY TETANIC STIMULATION IN CORTICAL CULTURES - APPLICATION OF PLANAR ELECTRODE ARRAYS

Rat cortical neurons were cultured on planar electrode arrays with 64 embedded electrodes, Whole-cell recording from single neurons and mult isite extracellular recording were carried out simultaneously in the c ultured cortical networks, and the effects of focal tetanic stimulatio n of the culture were studied. Both the number of action potentials an d the propagation velocity of stimulated bursts were increased after t etanic stimulation. These changes were associated with a marked increa se in the number of late components in the synaptic current, but with little or no increase in the early peak synaptic current. The effects of tetanic stimulation were consistent with a widespread increase in t he reliability of monosynaptic transmission.