<p>Many parts of the fetus brain begin showing neural activity before the senses that feed them are sufficiently developed to provide actual sensory information. In other words, it is unlikely that spiking activity in the brain is initiated by the senses. Some of the cells that become sensory organs, however, often fire in very specific patterns similar to the patterns they will use when they start actually sensing.</p>
<p>An example from Penn &amp; Shatz (1999): in the human fetus, the connections from the eye to the visual cortex form before the retina is developed enough to respond to light. However, at this time the retinal ganglion cells spontaneously generate highly correlated bursts of action potentials. These bursts are similar to the sort of data they will generate once they actual start sensing, and these preliminary bursts allow the human fetus to start developing its visual cortex before it even has functional retina. This is not unique to humans, and similar activity was first observed in rats (Galli &amp; Maffei, 1988).</p>
<p>The take away message, is that the cell in the brain start firing spontaneously before they has any sensory input. Some of this early firing is 'random' in the sense <a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/619/29">you asked before</a>. However, neurons that develop into future sensory organs, tend to have their spontaneous firing resemble what their typical sensory production will look like in the future (once they start sensing). This allows the downstream circuitry to start adapting to the firing pattens before any real sensory infromation becomes available.</p>
<h3>References</h3>
<ul>
<li><p>Galli, L., &amp; Maffei, L. (1988) &quot;<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/242/4875/90.short" rel="noreferrer">Spontaneous impulse activity of rat retinal ganglion cells in prenatal life</a>&quot;. <em>Science</em> 242(4875): 90-91.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Penn, A.A., &amp; Shatz, C.J. (1999) &quot;<a href="http://www.nature.com/pr/journal/v45/n4-1/full/pr199992a.html" rel="noreferrer">Brain Waves and Brain Wiring: The Role of Endogenous and Sensory-Driven Neural Activity in Development</a>&quot;. <em>Pediatric Research</em> 45: 447–458.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-12T20:50:39.973Z
How many weeks along is this typically for a pregnancy, when neural activity is gound?
Jonathan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-29T08:46:15.747Z
Nice job with this one!  I would have missed the `tend to have their spontaneous firing resemble what their typical sensory production will look like in the future` piece had I expanded on my other answer.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-29T15:34:42.947Z
Thank you @ChuckSherrington I was on a voting spree last night and came across this question again. Hopefully the answer is still useful to OP. I am not sure if I completely answer the question, though.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-29T07:24:04.090Z
2012-06-13T20:29:21.400Z
2020-06-17T09:55:31.633Z
Artem Kaznatcheev
<p>I'm interested in modeling human brain spiking activity. How does the very first spiking activity begin in the fetus?</p>

<p>I imagine all spiking activity is initiated by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_neuron">senses</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_oscillation">internal oscillators</a>. Am I right? Or are there other initiators of spiking activity?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-23T08:28:17.607Z
See my answer to [your other question](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/619/random-neuronal-firing) for some insights into this.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:46:20.630Z
@jonsca since the user seems unresponsive, I would suggest just explaining the relevant details of [your other answer](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/623/29). It seems that the message there was along the lines of "neurons want to fire if conditions permit".
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:47:08.083Z
@JohnPick can you provide a reference for all spiking ceasing as described in point 2?
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:50:29.160Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev A reference for point 2? No. Perhaps a separate question is warranted to check if point 2 is valid.
John Pick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:54:34.250Z
@JohnPick then don't include statements you don't know the validity of in your question unless they ARE your question. Without point 2 your question should be completely restated to only point 1, as "How does neural spiking begin in the fetus?"
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:58:14.707Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev I didn't realize when I wrote the point that I didn't know its validity. I will revise the question.
John Pick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-28T15:59:28.567Z
@JohnPick thank you, I will withdraw my downvote after the revised and more focused question is edited. Thank you for taking the time to improve the question. If you refine to the question I suggested, then it might be worthwhile to also include the developmental-psychology tag.
Artem Kaznatcheev
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-03-29T00:06:58.373Z
@ArtemKaznatcheev My reply over there doesn't answer this question directly, but it gives some clues as to how spontaneous firing might arise. I'm sure there's a body of literature on people recording signals from frog embryos or something of that ilk.  I just haven't had a chance to look carefully.
Chuck Sherrington
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-07T22:06:57.743Z
@JohnPick [this question](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/790/29) might also be of interest to you as a continuation of your previous questions on the topic.
Artem Kaznatcheev
<neuroscience><developmental-psychology><neural-network><theoretical-neuroscience>
How does neural spiking begin in the fetus?
John Pick
# How does neural spiking begin in the fetus?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-03-23)

I'm interested in modeling human brain spiking activity. How does the very first spiking activity begin in the fetus?

I imagine all spiking activity is initiated by the [senses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_neuron) and [internal oscillators](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_oscillation). Am I right? Or are there other initiators of spiking activity?

**Tags:** neuroscience, developmental-psychology, neural-network, theoretical-neuroscience

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: See my answer to [your other question](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/619/random-neuronal-firing) for some insights into this.  
> **username_2**: @jonsca since the user seems unresponsive, I would suggest just explaining the relevant details of [your other answer](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/623/29). It seems that the message there was along the lines of "neurons want to fire if conditions permit".  
> **username_2**: @JohnPick can you provide a reference for all spiking ceasing as described in point 2?  
> **username_0**: @ArtemKaznatcheev A reference for point 2? No. Perhaps a separate question is warranted to check if point 2 is valid.  
> **username_2**: @JohnPick then don't include statements you don't know the validity of in your question unless they ARE your question. Without point 2 your question should be completely restated to only point 1, as "How does neural spiking begin in the fetus?"  
> **username_0**: @ArtemKaznatcheev I didn't realize when I wrote the point that I didn't know its validity. I will revise the question.  
> **username_2**: @JohnPick thank you, I will withdraw my downvote after the revised and more focused question is edited. Thank you for taking the time to improve the question. If you refine to the question I suggested, then it might be worthwhile to also include the developmental-psychology tag.  
> **username_1**: @ArtemKaznatcheev My reply over there doesn't answer this question directly, but it gives some clues as to how spontaneous firing might arise. I'm sure there's a body of literature on people recording signals from frog embryos or something of that ilk.  I just haven't had a chance to look carefully.  
> **username_2**: @JohnPick [this question](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/790/29) might also be of interest to you as a continuation of your previous questions on the topic.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-04-29. Score: 11 | Accepted answer

Many parts of the fetus brain begin showing neural activity before the senses that feed them are sufficiently developed to provide actual sensory information. In other words, it is unlikely that spiking activity in the brain is initiated by the senses. Some of the cells that become sensory organs, however, often fire in very specific patterns similar to the patterns they will use when they start actually sensing.

An example from Penn & Shatz (1999): in the human fetus, the connections from the eye to the visual cortex form before the retina is developed enough to respond to light. However, at this time the retinal ganglion cells spontaneously generate highly correlated bursts of action potentials. These bursts are similar to the sort of data they will generate once they actual start sensing, and these preliminary bursts allow the human fetus to start developing its visual cortex before it even has functional retina. This is not unique to humans, and similar activity was first observed in rats (Galli & Maffei, 1988).

The take away message, is that the cell in the brain start firing spontaneously before they has any sensory input. Some of this early firing is 'random' in the sense [you asked before](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/619/29). However, neurons that develop into future sensory organs, tend to have their spontaneous firing resemble what their typical sensory production will look like in the future (once they start sensing). This allows the downstream circuitry to start adapting to the firing pattens before any real sensory infromation becomes available.

### References

* Galli, L., & Maffei, L. (1988) "[Spontaneous impulse activity of rat retinal ganglion cells in prenatal life](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/242/4875/90.short)". *Science* 242(4875): 90-91.
* Penn, A.A., & Shatz, C.J. (1999) "[Brain Waves and Brain Wiring: The Role of Endogenous and Sensory-Driven Neural Activity in Development](http://www.nature.com/pr/journal/v45/n4-1/full/pr199992a.html)". *Pediatric Research* 45: 447–458.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Nice job with this one!  I would have missed the `tend to have their spontaneous firing resemble what their typical sensory production will look like in the future` piece had I expanded on my other answer.  
> **username_2**: Thank you @ChuckSherrington I was on a voting spree last night and came across this question again. Hopefully the answer is still useful to OP. I am not sure if I completely answer the question, though.  
> **username_3**: How many weeks along is this typically for a pregnancy, when neural activity is gound?  

---

