Post-Conditional Correlation between Neurons in Cultured Neuronal Networks

A new conditional spike train analytical method is developed to estimate the post-conditional probability of firing of spikes in neurons to reveal both excitation and inhibition coupling between firing times. This method allows us to determine how the spike firing probability density function is related to the conditional probability of firing of another neuron in the network subsequent to the firing of a reference neuron. When this analysis is applied to the firing patterns of neurons in a cultured network, it revealed that some of the neurons have excitatory coupling whereas other neurons display inhibitory coupling. The coupling between these neurons is also found not to be reciprocal.