Topic: homeostatic mechanism

Neurons spike spontaneously in many experimental settings. Such firing patterns are often characterized by prolonged periods of silence followed by an unknown trigger of spontaneous activity that propagates throughout the slice. These were dubbed `neural avalanches' as they resemble avalanches in which accumulated snow rapidly flows down a mountain slope. Expanding this analogy -- if the network connectivity is equivalent to the mountain slope, what is the 'snow' that accumulates prior to a neural avalanche? Here, we propose that it is the accumulation of ATP in neuronal mitochondria, and that

Spontaneous firing, observed in many neurons, is often attributed to ion channel or network level noise. Cortical cells during slow wave sleep exhibit transitions between so called Up and Down states. In this sleep state, with limited sensory stimuli, neurons fire in the Up state. Spontaneous firing is also observed in slices of cholinergic interneurons, cerebellar Purkinje cells and even brainstem inspiratory neurons. In such in vitro preparations, where the functional relevance is long lost, neurons continue to display a rich repertoire of firing properties. It is perplexing that these neuro