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Local Field Potential, Ephaptic Interactions

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Charge transfer across the membrane of all structures in brain matter such as neurons, glial cells, etc. induces the so-called extracellular sinks and sources that, in turn, give rise to an extracellular field, i.e., a spatial gradient of the extracellular voltage (V e ) measured in comparison to a distant reference signal. The physics governing such events are described by Maxwell’s equations. In their simplest form, Maxwell’s equations dictate that V e depends on the transmembrane current amplitude, the impedance of the extracellular medium, and the distance between the location of the ionic flux and the recording (see also entries “Local Field Potentials (LFP)” and “Local Field Potential, Methods of Recording” and (Koch 1999)). V e signals resulting from the activity of the entire cell populations can therefore be recorded via standard recording techniques and have been used for decades to monitor electric processing in the brain (Buzsaki 2002).

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Adam Shai and Michael Hawrylycz for comments and suggestions as well as the Allen Institute for Brain Science founders, P. G. Allen and J. Allen, for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Allen Institute for Brain Science, 551 North 34th Street, Seattle, WA, 98103, USA

    Dr. Costas A. Anastassiou

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  1. Dr. Costas A. Anastassiou
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Correspondence to Costas A. Anastassiou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Anastassiou, C.A. (2014). Local Field Potential, Ephaptic Interactions. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_550-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_550-1

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