POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access The association between cell assemblies and

Neural systems show a wide variety of complex dynamics on different time scales. Specifically, on the short time scale of neuronal activations (milliseconds to seconds), several theoretical models (e.g., state-dependent networks or liquid state machines [1]) demonstrate that complex (transient) dynamics enables neural circuits to process a broad range of nonlinear problems. In other words, neural circuits process inputs to transform them into desired out-puts. This approach, amongst others, is based on the inherent stochasticity (randomness) of neural systems. On the other hand, the slower mechanisms of synaptic plasti-city (minutes to hours) adapt synaptic efficacies to form ordered structures as neural cell assemblies [2]. Each cell assembly consists of a group of strongly interconnected neurons and its dynamics serves as an associative memor