Spontaneous neural activity patterns allowing for diverse signaling mechanisms

Abstract

The brain is a system that can generate information internally and spontaneously to create its own functional structure as well as updating specific persistent internal states to optimize the information representation. Recent studies have suggested that“spontaneous activity patterns”play important roles during these processes. However, we still do not know how the patterned spontaneous activity of the brain network translates the information to regulate these processes. Moreover, molecular mechanisms underlying the patterned spontaneous activity are largely unknown. In this review, we introduce recent studies showing temporal structure of spontaneous activity patterns as well as their molecular regulatory mechanisms. By reviewing common and different mechanistic strategies between developmental and adult stages, we hypothesize that spontaneous activity patterns allow for diverse signaling mechanisms that can be useful in signifying specific persistent internal states of the brain. Also, we discuss the necessity of advanced methodological approaches in both experimental and computational techniques towards better understanding of the functional significance of temporal structure of spontaneous activity of the brains.