Table 1 Overview of plasticity-inducing stimuli used by other researchers. The following is a very brief synopsis of the methods and main results of a number of previous studies that reported plasticity in dense cortical cultures on MEAs. Please refer to the original papers for more information.

Maeda et al. (1998) [24]

Trains of 20 pulses at 20 Hz simultaneously to each of 5 electrodes, repeated 5–10× at 10–15 s intervals.

Trains of 20–30 pulses at 1 kHz or stronger single pulses, to 1 or 5 electrodes, repeated every 15–30 s.

Increased probability of evoking array-wide bursts by test stimuli after tetanization.

Jimbo et al. (1998) [25]

Trains of 11 pulses at 20 Hz to a single electrode, repeated 10× at 5 s intervals.

Single pulses, repeated every 10 s.

As above, plus earlier and more precisely timed onset for intracellular inward currents due to evoked bursts.

Jimbo et al. (1999) [26]

Trains of 10 pulses at 20 Hz to one electrode, repeated 20× at 5 s intervals.

Individual pulses to each of 64 electrodes, repeated 10× at 3 s intervals.

'Pathway- dependent' plasticity.

Tateno and Jimbo (1999) [27]

As above, as well as simultaneous tetanization of a pair of electrodes.

Individual pulses to the tetanized electrodes, repeated 53×.

Increased response to test pulses after paired tetani, with improved temporal precision of first response spikes.

Shahaf and Marom (2001) [3]

Bipolar stimulation between a pair of electrodes, at 1–3 s intervals, repeated until the desired response was seen, or for 10 min max.

Induction stimuli served as test stimuli.

Desired responses (increased spike rate 50–60 ms post-stimulus) obtained after fewer trials on successive test series.

Ruaro et al. (2005) [5]

Trains of 100 pulses at 250 Hz simultaneously to each of 15 electrodes in an L-shape, repeated 40× at 2 s intervals.

Stimuli, simultaneously to several electrodes, in an L- or ⌉-shape.

Responses to L-shape enhanced relative to ⌉-shape.