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Local Field Potentials: Interaction with the Extracellular Medium

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Definition

The local field potential (LFP) is the electric potential in the extracellular space around neurons. The LFP is generated by electric currents and charges, and is also interacting in several possible ways with the extracellular medium, such as capacitive interactions, polarization, or through ionic diffusion. These types of interaction confer specific frequency dependence of the extracellular electric potential and thus are important for correctly interpreting the LFP, as well as estimating the underlying neuronal sources (inverse problem).

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Introduction

In contrast to the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded at the surface of the scalp, the local field potential (LFP) is recorded by inserting microelectrodes into neural tissue and is recordable using a variety of electrode systems, such as metal or silicon electrodes, or glass micropipettes. Early studies established that action potentials have a limited participation to EEGs or LFPs (Bremer 1938, 1949;...

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References

Further Reading

  • Bedard C, Destexhe A (2012) Modeling local field potentials and their interaction with the extracellular medium. In: Brette R, Destexhe A (eds) Handbook of neural activity measurement. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 136–191

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  • Koch C, Segev I (eds) (1998) Methods in neuronal modeling, 2nd edn. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

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Correspondence to Alain Destexhe .

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Bédard, C., Destexhe, A. (2020). Local Field Potentials: Interaction with the Extracellular Medium. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_720-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_720-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Local Field Potentials: Interaction with the Extracellular Medium
    Published:
    13 January 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_720-2

  2. Original

    Local Field Potential Interaction with the Extracellular Medium
    Published:
    15 March 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_720-1