Neural assemblies are considered fundamental building blocks of cortical computation and function, yet how they emerge during developmentremains largely unknown.
Recent advances in longitudinal two-photon calcium imaging now make it possible to track hundreds of neurons across days in awake animals, opening a window onto assembly formation that was not available before. Using recently available data from the second postnatal week in mice, we characterise the transition from highly synchronous, low-dimensional population activity towards the sparse, structured ensemble organisation characteristic of mature cortex. We then ask what drives this transition mechanistically. Using biologically constrained network models, we propose that it reflects a fundamental shift in how cortical circuits are stabilised: from networks stabilised by short-term synaptic depression (depression-stabilised networks) to networks stabilised by recurrent inhibition (inhibitory-stabilised networks). This framework ties the emergence of structured neural assemblies to the maturation of excitatory-inhibitory balance, and offers testable predictions for future experiments.

About the Speaker: Sadra Sadeh is head of the Computational Neuroscience Lab, based at the Francis Crick Institute and King’s College. The Sadeh Lab builds computational models of brain networks, to understand how brain structure is linked to its dynamics and function.
Work in the lab is supported by the Wellcome Trust and UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Services Research Council.
Read more about Sadra Sadeh and work in his team here – https://sadehlab.com/ 

Photo courtesy of Sadra Sadeh

This talk is hosted by Denis Alevi (Associated PhD B03)

Certificate of attendance: Please contact team assistant Laura.Starck@hu-berlin.de

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