Synthetic reverberating activity patterns embedded in networks of cortical neurons

Synthetic reverberating activity patterns are experimentally generated by stimulation of a subset of neurons embedded in a spontaneously active network of cortical cells in vitro. The neurons are artificially connected by means of a conditional stimulation matrix, forming a synthetic local circuit with a predefined programmable connectivity and time delays. Possible uses of this experimental design are demonstrated, analyzing the sensitivity of these deterministic activity patterns to transmission delays and to the nature of ongoing network dynamics.