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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience pp 2642–2647Cite as

Rhythm Generation in Embryonic Chick Spinal Cord

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Definition

Early in development, vertebrate neural networks become spontaneously active in the absence of sensory inputs. Their activity is episodic and differs from the activity that will take place in the fully mature, functional network. In the isolated chick spinal cord preparation, episodic activity starts at embryonic day (E) 4 and lasts about 10 days. At E4, it is characterized by one short bout of synchronous activity along the ventral spinal cord occurring every 2 min. By E10, episodes can last over a minute and are comprised of several cycles of activity. Many different developing networks also produce episodic activity; this activity plays an important role in the maturity of the synaptic networks in which it is expressed (Blankenship and Feller 2010; O’Donovan 1999).

Detailed Description

Spontaneous network activity was first observed behaviorally as embryonic motility (Preyer 1937). This spinally generated activity occurs in bouts separated by periods of quiescence....

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Joel Tabak

  2. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Peter Wenner

  3. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Michael J. O’Donovan

Authors
  1. Joel Tabak
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  2. Peter Wenner
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  3. Michael J. O’Donovan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joel Tabak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Tabak, J., Wenner, P., O’Donovan, M.J. (2015). Rhythm Generation in Embryonic Chick Spinal Cord. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_45

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