Morphological characterization of in vitro neuronal networks.

We use in vitro neuronal networks as a model system for studying self-organization processes in the nervous system. We follow the neuronal growth process, from isolated neurons to fully connected two-dimensional networks. The mature networks are mapped into connected graphs and their morphological characteristics are measured. The distributions of segment lengths, node connectivity, and path length between nodes, and the clustering coefficient of the networks are used to characterize network morphology and to demonstrate that our networks fall into the category of small-world networks.