Summary
Even a complete understanding of the biophysical properties driving neuronal behavior would be insufficient to explain the interactions between neurons, neuronal assemblies, and brain regions. Exploring interactions between small numbers of synaptically coupled neurons in vitro can provide insight into the in vivo activity of neuronal assemblies. However, pairs of synaptically coupled neurons are notoriously difficult to find in vitro, and trying to study networks of more than two neurons is nearly impossible. The advent of the dynamic-clamp technique enables researchers to generate hybrid networks of neurons in which living neurons are synaptically coupled through computationally generated synapses. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the components of a dynamic-clamp system. We detail how to use dynamic clamp to construct simple neuronal networks from living neurons as well as hybrid networks including both living and in silico neurons.
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Acknowledgments
We thank David Christini and Robert Butera for help in development and use of dynamic-clamp techniques. This work was supported by NIH R01 NS34425 (PI: John A. White) and R01 RR020115 (PI: David J. Christini).
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© 2007 Humana Press Inc.
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Dorval, A.D., Bettencourt, J., Netoff, T.I., White, J.A. (2007). Hybrid Neuronal Network Studies Under Dynamic Clamp. In: Molnar, P., Hickman, J.J. (eds) Patch-Clamp Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 403. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-529-9_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-529-9_15
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-698-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-529-9
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