METHODOLOGY ARTICLE Open Access

Understanding the temporal evolution of neuronal connectivity in cultured networks using statistical analysis Alessandro Napoli1*, Jichun Xie2 and Iyad Obeid1 Background: Micro-Electrode Array (MEA) technology allows researchers to perform long-term non-invasive neuronal recordings in-vitro while actively interacting with the cultured neurons. Despite numerous studies carried out using MEAs, many functional, chemical and structural mechanisms of how dissociated cortical neurons develop and respond to external stimuli are not yet well understood because of the lack of quantitative studies that assess how their development can be affected by chronic external stimulation. Methods: To investigate network changes, we analyzed a large MEA data set composed of neuron spikes recorded from cultures of dissociated rat cortical neurons plated on MEA dishes with 59 recording electrodes each. Neural network activity was recorded during the first five weeks of each culture’s in-vitro development. Stimulation sessions were delivered to each of the 59 electrodes. The False Discovery Rate technique was used to quantify the temporal evolution of dissociated cortical neurons. Our analysis focused on network responses that occurred within selecte