Lecturer: Prof. Elisha Moses
Affiliation: Physics of Complex systems,
Weizmann Institute of Science
Abstract:
Cultured networks of neurons from rat
hippocampus constitute a fascinating
reductionist model for biological computation.
While the individual neurons retain their
physiological characteristics as in the intact
brain, the structure and connectivity they
generate in the network is considerably simpler
to measure and analyze, and therefore to
engineer and design. We find that disconnected
single neurons oscillate independently of each
other, but when the network is connected they
synchronize into bursts in which all neurons fire
together. We then investigate how initiation of
this burst is brought about, and find a
percolation process that is well describe by
model invoking the recruitment of a quorum.