Traveling waves appear in various signals that measure neuronal activity. Some signals measured in animals have singles-cell resolution and directly point to neuronal activity. In those cases, activation of distributed neurons forms a wave front, and the front propagates across the cortical surface. Other signals are variants of neuroelectric potentials, i.e. electroencephalography, electrocorticography and field potentials. Instead of having fine spatial resolution, these signals reflect the activity of neuronal populations via volume conduction (VC). Sources of traveling waves in neuroelectric potentials have not been well addressed so far. As animal studies show propagating activation of neurons that spread in measured areas, it is often considered that neuronal activations during scalp waves have similar trajectories of activation, spreading like scalp waves. However, traveling waves on the scalp differ from those found directly on the cortical surface in several dimensions: traveling velocity, traveling distance and areal size occupied by single polarity. We describe that the simplest sources can produce scalp waves with perceived spatial dimensions which are actually a magnification of neuronal activity emanating from local sources due to VC. This viewpoint is not a rigorous proof of our magnification concept. However, we suggest the possibility that the actual dimensions of neuronal activity producing traveling waves is not as large as the dimension of the traveling waves.

行波出现在测量神经元活动的各种信号中。在动物身上测得的一些信号具有单细胞分辨率，并直接指向神经元活动。在那些情况下，分布式神经元的激活形成一个波前，并且波前传播穿过皮层表面。其他信号是神经电位的变体，即脑电图、皮质电图和场电位。这些信号不是具有良好的空间分辨率，而是通过体积传导 (VC) 反映神经元群的活动。到目前为止，神经电位行波的来源尚未得到很好的解决。由于动物研究表明在测量区域传播神经元的传播激活，因此通常认为头皮波期间的神经元激活具有相似的激活轨迹，像头皮波浪一样蔓延开来。然而，头皮上的行波与直接在皮层表面发现的行波在几个方面有所不同：行进速度、行进距离和单极性占据的区域大小。我们描述了最简单的来源可以产生具有感知空间维度的头皮波，这实际上是由于 VC 而从局部来源发出的神经元活动的放大。这个观点并不是我们放大概念的严格证明。然而，我们认为产生行波的神经元活动的实际尺寸可能不如行波的尺寸那么大。行驶距离和单极性占用的面积大小。我们描述了最简单的来源可以产生具有感知空间维度的头皮波，这实际上是由于 VC 而从局部来源发出的神经元活动的放大。这个观点并不是我们放大概念的严格证明。然而，我们认为产生行波的神经元活动的实际尺寸可能不如行波的尺寸那么大。行驶距离和单极性占用的面积大小。我们描述了最简单的来源可以产生具有感知空间维度的头皮波，这实际上是由于 VC 而从局部来源发出的神经元活动的放大。这个观点并不是我们放大概念的严格证明。然而，我们认为产生行波的神经元活动的实际尺寸可能不如行波的尺寸那么大。