Base of brain intelligence: Information flow in cultured neuronal networks and its simulation on 2D mesh network

It´s important for understanding brain intelligence to investigate how the signal/ information is flown in neuronal network. We observed spike trains obtained by one-shot electrical stimulation with 8 × 8 multi-electrodes in cultured neuronal networks. Each electrode is considered to collect spikes from several neurons. We then constructed code flow maps as movies of the electrode array to observe the code flow especially of “1101” and “1011.” To quantify the flow, we calculated the cross-correlations of the maximum direction of the codes with lengths less than 8. Normalized cross-correlations in the maximum direction were almost constant irrespective of code. Thus, the analysis suggested that the local codes for electrode flow maintained the code shape to some extent and conveyed information in the neural network. Then we made simulation of such code flow, and could estimate rough characteristics of neurons including refractory period and distribution of connection weights between neurons.