Automation of network burst analysis in the single neuron resolution based on calcium imaging

Network-wide synchronous firing (´network burst´) is interesting as they are thought to be the unit of information processing in neural networks. The investigation of network bursts has been mainly carried out by microelectrode array technology. Recently, calcium imaging technique has been used to interrogate neural circuits in large-scale. Here we implemented an automated algorithm for network burst analysis based on calcium imaging techniques. In this algorithm, the detection of network bursts, the basic characterization of burst profiles, spatiotemporal mapping of intra-burst propagation, and consistency evaluation were included. As an exemplified application, we analyzed spontaneous network bursting activities of cultured neuronal networks to validate the feasibility of this algorithm and observed that the basic properties of burst profile and cellular pathways of intra-burst propagation could be changed with chemical treatment. This automated algorithm allows the investigation of network dynamics in relation to cellular activities and can further contribute to the large scale analysis of functional connectivity in real brain networks.