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Effect of acute elevated magnesium on bursting activity and information-processing dynamics in cortical cultures

LaGrange, K. G. H.; Varley, T. F.; O'Shea, L. F.; Fitzpatrick, J. G.; Cummings, S. E.; Beggs, J. M.

2025-08-24 neuroscience
10.1101/2025.08.20.671363 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Magnesium (Mg2+) plays a significant role in hippocampal memory and learning and is implicated in a variety of neurological disorders, such as migraine. Despite this crucial role Mg2+ has on brain health, its effect on the dynamics of networks of neurons is still not fully understood. This study investigates the impact of several doses of elevated extracellular Mg2+ on organotypic cultures. Cultures were recorded on a 512-microelectrode array and analyzed using the burstiness index (BI), the rate of network-wide bursts relative to other neuronal activity. We also use a suite of information theoretic measures to further establish the role Mg2+ plays in the brain. Elevated Mg2+ is found to have a dose-dependent increase on BI caused by a loss of network activity not contained within a burst or high firing rate activity. Information dynamics further show that the network experiences a loss of entropy and an increase in time-reversibility, connectivity, and transfer of redundant information. These factors indicate that Mg2+ causes a loss of complex activity and an increase in highly integrated, constant dynamics. This lays the groundwork for a deeper examination of the role Mg2+ plays in learning, memory and treating neurological disorders.

Published in Network Neuroscience (predicted rank #25) · training set

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