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Bursting

Bursting, or burst firing, is an extremely diverse[1] general phenomenon of the activation patterns of neurons in the central nervous system[2][3] and spinal cord[4] where periods of rapid action potential spiking are followed by quiescent periods much longer than typical inter-spike intervals. Bursting is thought to be important in the operation of robust central pattern generators,[5][6][7] the transmission of neural codes,[8][9] and some neuropathologies such as epilepsy.[10] The study of bursting both directly and in how it takes part in other neural phenomena has been very popular since the beginnings of cellular neuroscience and is closely tied to the fields of neural synchronization, neural coding, plasticity, and attention.

Observed bursts are named by the number of discrete action potentials they are composed of: a doublet is a two-spike burst, a triplet three and a quadruplet four. Neurons that are intrinsically prone to bursting behavior are referred to as bursters and this tendency to burst may be a product of the environment or the phenotype of the cell.

Physiological context[edit]

Overview[edit]

Neurons typically operate by firing single action potential spikes in relative isolation as discrete input postsynaptic potentials combine and drive the membrane potential across the threshold. Bursting can instead occur for many reasons, but neurons can be generally grouped as exhibiting input-driven or intrinsic bursting. Most cells will exhibit bursting if they are driven by a constant, subthreshold input[11] and particular cells which are genotypically prone to bursting (called bursters) have complex feedback systems which will produce bursting patterns with less dependence on input and sometimes even in isolation.[3][11]


In each case, the physiological system is often thought as being the action of two linked subsystems. The fast subsystem is responsible for each spike the neuron produces. The slow subsystem modulates the shape and intensity of these spikes before eventually triggering quiescence.


Input-driven bursting often encodes the intensity of input into the bursting frequency[11] where a neuron then acts as an integrator. Intrinsic bursting is a more specialized phenomenon and is believed to play a much more diverse role in neural computation.

Statistical detection[edit]

In isolation or in mathematical models bursting can be recognized since the environment and state of the neuron can be carefully observed and modulated. When observing neurons in the wild, however, bursting may be difficult to distinguish from normal firing patterns. In order to recognize bursting patterns in these contexts statistical methods are used to determine threshold parameters.


Bursting is characterized by a coefficient of variation (CV) of the interspike intervals (ISI) that is larger than one, or a Fano factor of the spike count that is larger than one, because bursting leads to spike patterns that are more irregular than a Poisson process (which has a CV and Fano factor equal to unity). Alternatively, the serial correlation coefficient of the ISI sequence is positive for bursting patterns, because in this case short ISIs tend to be followed by more short ISIs (at least if the bursts consist of more than two spikes).

Example bursting neuron circuits[edit]

Hippocampus[edit]

The subiculum, a component of the hippocampal formation, is thought to perform relaying of signals originating in the hippocampus to many other parts of the brain.[23] In order to perform this function, it uses intrinsically bursting neurons to convert promising single stimuli into longer lasting burst patterns as a way to better focus attention on new stimuli and activate important processing circuits.[2][24] Once these circuits have been activated, the subicular signal reverts to a single spiking mode.[25]

pre-Bötzinger complex[edit]

The pre-Bötzinger complex (preBötC) is located in ventrolateral medulla and is proposed to generate the rhythm underlying inspiratory efforts in mammals. Since the frequency that the lungs need to operate at can vary according to metabolic demand, preBötC activity is modulated over a wide range of frequencies and is able to entrain the respiratory system to meet metabolic demand. While pacemaker neurons do not necessarily require intrinsically bursting neurons[21] the preBötC contains a heterogeneous population of both regular spiking and intrinsically bursting neurons. Intrinsically bursting neurons are thought to make the preBötC oscillations more robust to changing frequencies and the regularity of inspiratory efforts.[7]

Cerebellar cortex[edit]

Cerebellar Purkinje neurons have been proposed to have two distinct bursting modes: dendritically driven, by dendritic Ca2+
spikes
,[26] and somatically driven, wherein the persistent Na+
current
is the burst initiator and the SK K+
current
is the burst terminator.[27] Purkinje neurons may utilise these bursting forms in information coding to the deep cerebellar nuclei.

Action potential

Central pattern generator

Dynamical systems

Information theory

External links[edit]

Izhikevich E. M. (2006) Bursting. Scholarpedia, 1(3):1300