Background

The local field potential (LFP) is usually calculated from current sources arising from transmembrane currents, in particular in asymmetric cellular morphologies such as pyramidal neurons.

New method

Here, we adopt a different point of view and relate the spiking of neurons to the LFP through efferent synaptic connections and provide a method to calculate LFPs.

Results

We show that the so-called unitary LFPs (uLFP) provide the key to such a calculation. We show experimental measurements and simulations of uLFPs in neocortex and hippocampus, for both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. We fit a “kernel” function to measurements of uLFPs, and we estimate its spatial and temporal spread by using simulations of morphologically detailed reconstructions of hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Assuming that LFPs are the sum of uLFPs generated by every neuron in the network, the LFP generated by excitatory and inhibitory neurons can be calculated by convolving the trains of action potentials with the kernels estimated from uLFPs. This provides a method to calculate the LFP from networks of spiking neurons, even for point neurons for which the LFP is not easily defined. We show examples of LFPs calculated from networks of point neurons and compare to the LFP calculated from synaptic currents.

Conclusions

The kernel-based method provides a practical way to calculate LFPs from networks of point neurons.

中文翻译：

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一种基于核的方法，可以从尖峰神经元网络计算局部场电势。

背景

通常根据跨膜电流产生的电流源来计算局部场电势（LFP），尤其是在非对称细胞形态（例如锥体神经元）中。

新方法

在这里，我们采用不同的观点，并通过传出的突触连接将神经元的突波与LFP相关联，并提供了一种计算LFP的方法。

结果

我们证明了所谓的单一LFP（uLFP）提供了这种计算的关键。我们显示了新皮层和海马中的uLFPs的兴奋性和抑制性神经元的实验测量和模拟。我们将“内核”函数拟合到uLFP的测量中，并通过使用海马锥体神经元形态学上详细的重建模拟来估计其空间和时间分布。假设LFP是网络中每个神经元生成的uLFP的总和，则可以通过将动作电位序列与从uLFPs估计的内核进行卷积来计算由兴奋性神经元和抑制​​性神经元生成的LFP。这提供了一种从尖峰神经元网络计算LFP的方法，即使对于不容易定义LFP的点神经元也是如此。

结论

基于核的方法提供了一种从点神经元网络计算LFP的实用方法。