Topic: in vivo functional imaging

The function of the cerebral cortex relies on the cellular balance between excitatory (pyramidal cells) and inhibitory neurons (interneurons), which is disrupted in disorders such as autism or schizophrenia. The emergence of cortical function during postnatal development relies on spontaneous synchronous activity among large groups of pyramidal cells and interneurons, which later desynchronise for efficient information processing. Before this network activity shift, interneuron numbers are adjusted through activity-dependent programmed cell death mechanisms. However, the extent to which the ad