Fig. 3: BDNF treatment distinctly alters connection strength in a concentration-dependent manner.

a Distribution of synchronization strengths for cultures treated with vehicle (0B; left), 25 ng/ml BDNF (25B; middle), and 50 ng/ml BDNF (50B; right) over time. b Changes in connections with initially weak synchronization (values of [0.1,0.4)). e = 1720 for 0B; e = 1454 for 25B; e = 2002 for 50B. c Changes in connections with initially medium synchronization (values of [0.4,0.7)). e = 556 for 0B; e = 700 for 25B; e = 482 for 50B. d Changes in connections with initially strong synchronization (values of [0.7,1.0)). e = 620 for 0B; e = 654 for 25B; e = 760 for 50B. e Summary schematic of synchronization changes during development with BDNF treatment. Colors correspond to synchronization values, ranging from weak (dark blue) to strong (red). Data in a–d from N = 3 independent experiments. For b–d: y-axis indicates percent change from baseline (pre-treatment). Top row compares pre-treatment to 0d post-treatment, and bottom row compares pre-treatment to 7d post-treatment. Plots on the left indicate means with 95% CIs, and p values calculated by RM ANOVA followed by Tukey–Kramer multiple comparisons test, where ***p < 0.001 indicates significant differences between timepoints within the same condition. Distributions on the right with means (black squares) and 95% CIs (vertical lines) show comparisons between conditions and were calculated via estimation statistics with p values calculated directly from CIs. N indicates the number of experiments, and e indicates the number of electrodes.