Diversifying network activity by a means of a cholinergic agonist.

<p>(A) A 120-s recording of spontaneous activity in a network of cortical neurons growing on a MEA. Each line reports activity (action potentials) recorded from one of the 59 extracellular electrodes of the MEA. Each dot represents one action potential. An enlarged portion of the recording is shown in the bottom panel. Note the tendency of spontaneous activity in these networks to occur as synchronized, network-wide bursts. (B) The same network as in (A) after exposure to 20 μM of Carbachol. (C) Average (±SEM) size remodeling covariance for all CI and non-CI synapse pairs before exposure to Carbachol (27 CI pairs from 8 neurons in 2 experiments). (D) Average (±SEM) size remodeling covariance for all CI and non-CI synapse pairs after exposure to Carbachol. Source data for (C) and (D) provided in <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002572#pbio.1002572.s001" target="_blank">S1 Data</a>.