Extracellular Electrical Stimulation-based in Vitro Neuroscience: A Minireview of Methods and a Paradigm Shift Proposal

Abstract

Biological neuronal cells communicate using neurochemistry and electrical signals. Electrical stimulation (ES) is utilized to study neuronal cells and networks. Currently, ES is applied and responses observed in an open-loop fashion, which does not resemble natural network I/O. We hypothesize that real-time closed-loop full-duplex (simultaneous two-way) paradigms could provide deeper insight in natural neuronal networks, helping to understand our brains and to control neuronal network states to cure diseases. We present a minireview of ES-based extracellular in vitro neuroscience, our first long-term closed-loop ES experiment results as the proof-of-feasibility of the method, and our paradigm-shifting proposal of dialogical bio-ICT paradigms.