Topological Mapping of Neurons using Activities Detected in MEA Recording Signals

The topological mapping of Multielectrode Array (MEA) in vitro cultured neurons is useful in neuroscience. In this context, it is proposed a framework for the visualization and grouping of the neurons, through their electrophysiogical activities, identifying spikes and bursts, in the MEA signal recordings. The developed framework is applied to the recording signals of the Experiment 371, of dissociated in vitro neuron culture conducted at the Laboratory of Neuroengineering and Bionanotechnology Group, University of Genoa, Italy. The main motivation of this work, is the use of an estimated map of population of neurons, in an arbitrary moment of the culture to study their dynamics. It is emphasized that the visualization of the map of neurons on MEA without the need of microscopy can be a great advantage, since a photography on the culture can be not available at a specific moment of signal recording. A mathematical model of neurons proposed by Izhikevich to simulate the action potentials of in vitro cultures is used to validate the proposal.