Topic: Spontaneous neural activity

Daniel Levenstein discusses spontaneous activity in the hippocampus and cortex, especially during sleep, and its relationship to learning, memory and navigation. He explains how AI models can help investigate these dynamics, alongside questions about model systems, cognitive maps and the relationship between neuroscience experiments and theory.

By continuously producing electrical signals, neurones are amongst the most energy-demanding cells in the organism. Resting ionic levels are restored via metabolic pumps that receive the necessary energy from oxygen supplied by blood vessels. Intense spontaneous neural activity is omnipresent in the developing CNS. It occurs during short, well-defined periods that coincide precisely with the timing of angiogenesis. Such coincidence cannot be random; there must be a universal mechanism triggering spontaneous activity concurrently with blood vessels invading neural territories for the first time