Information content of local field potentials: Experiments and models

Abstract

The local field potential (LFP) is a massed neural signal obtained by low-pass filtering (usually with a cutoff low-pass frequency in the range 100-300 Hz) of the extracellular electrical potential recorded with intracranial electrodes. LFPs have been neglected for a few decades because in vivo neurophysiological research focused mostly on isolating action potentials from individual neurons, but the last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the use of LFPs for studying cortical function, with a large amount of recent empirical and theoretical neurophysiological studies using LFPs to investigate the dynamics and the function of neural circuits under different conditions.