Spiral waves in disinhibited mammalian neocortex. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Spiral waves are a basic feature of excitable systems. Although such waves have been observed in a variety of biological systems, they have not been observed in the mammalian cortex during neuronal activity. Here, we report stable rotating spiral waves in rat neocortical slices visualized by voltage-sensitive dye imaging. Tissue from the occipital cortex (visual) was sectioned parallel to cortical lamina to preserve horizontal connections in layers III-V (500-mum-thick, approximately 4 x 6 mm(2)). In such tangential slices, excitation waves propagated in two dimensions during cholinergic oscillations. Spiral waves occurred spontaneously and alternated with plane, ring, and irregular waves. The rotation rate of the spirals was approximately 10 turns per second, and the rotation was linked to the oscillations in a one-cycle- one-rotation manner. A small (<128 mum) phase singularity occurred at the center of the spirals, about which were observed oscillations of widely distributed phases. The phase singularity drifted slowly across the tissue ( approximately 1 mm/10 turns). We introduced a computational model of a cortical layer that predicted and replicated many of the features of our experimental findings. We speculate that rotating spiral waves may provide a spatial framework to organize cortical oscillations.

publication date

  • November 3, 2004

Research

keywords

  • Neocortex

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC4413915

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 7744238736

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2705-04.2004

PubMed ID

  • 15525774

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 24

issue

  • 44