A joint structural and functional analysis of in-vitro neuronal networks

The acquisition, analysis and representation of experimental data describing both anatomical and functional information at cellular level is an innovative opportunity to investigate neuronal network processing and organization. In this paper we propose an image processing pipeline to study in-vitro neuronal networks with a joint analysis of anatomy and electrophysiology. Neuronal nuclei are detected by segmenting fluorescence images of neuronal cultures. The high resolution Multi Electrode Arrays (MEAs) technology is used to collect functional information on cellular electrophysiological activity. Finally, detailed maps, representing both structural and functional information, are obtained which provide statistics on neuron distribution and spiking activity.