31 Endogenously bursting neurons play central roles in many aspects of 32 nervous system function, ranging from motor control to perception. The 33 properties and bursting patterns generated by these neurons are subject to 34 neuromodulation, which can alter cycle frequency and amplitude by 35 modifying the properties of the neuron’s ionic currents. In the 36 stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of th...

An existing deteriorated or hydraulically undersized pipe can be replaced with a new pipe by static pipe bursting. Cavity expansion during pipe bursting induces ground movements, which may potentially damage nearby buried utilities if they are in close proximity to the pipe bursting operation. A large-scale pipe bursting experiment was performed in an 8 m long, 8 m wide, and 3 m deep test pit f...

Transcriptional bursting has been observed across species and is one of the primary causes of variable gene expression in cells and tissue. In this issue, Chong et al. describe how DNA topology results in transcriptional bursting in E. coli.

The intrinsic firing modes of adult CA1 pyramidal cells vary along a continuum of "burstiness" from regular firing to rhythmic bursting, depending on the ionic composition of the extracellular milieu. Burstiness is low in neurons exposed to a normal extracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](o)), but is markedly enhanced by lowering [Ca(2+)](o), although not by blocking Ca(2+) and Ca(2+)-acti...

BACKGROUND The role played by early neural activity in shaping retinal functions has not yet been established. In the developing vertebrate retina, ganglion cells fire spontaneous bursts of action potentials before the onset of visual experience. This spontaneous bursting disappears shortly after birth or eye opening. In the present study, we have investigated whether the outgrowth of receptive...

The oscillatory insulin release is fundamental to normal glycemic control. The basis of the oscillation is the intercellular coupling and bursting synchronization of beta cells in each islet. The functional role of islet beta cell mass organization with respect to its oscillatory bursting is not well understood. This is of special interest in view of the recent finding of islet cytoarchitectura...

Flexibility in neuronal circuits has its roots in the dynamical richness of their neurons. Depending on their membrane properties single neurons can produce a plethora of activity regimes including silence, spiking and bursting. What is less appreciated is that these regimes can coexist with each other so that a transient stimulus can cause persistent change in the activity of a given neuron. S...

The neural mechanisms generating rhythmic bursting activity in the mammalian brainstem, particularly in the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC), which is involved in respiratory rhythm generation, and in the spinal cord (e.g. locomotor rhythmic activity) that persist after blockade of synaptic inhibition remain poorly understood. Experimental studies in rodent medullary slices containing the pre-B...

Spontaneous rhythmic bursting induced by coapplication of strychnine (1 microM) and bicuculline (20 microM) was observed with electrophysiological recording from pairs of lumbar ventral roots (usually L5) in an isolated preparation of the neonatal rat spinal cord. Bursting was insensitive to exogenously applied GABA or glycine, confirming that it was attributable to block of glycine and GABAA r...

The locust visual system contains a well-defined motion-sensitive pathway that transfers visual input to motor centers involved in predator evasion and collision avoidance. One interneuron in this pathway, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), is typically described as using rate coding; edge expansion of approaching objects causes an increased rate of neuronal firing that peak...