Revealing the distribution of transmembrane currents along the dendritic tree of a neuron from extracellular recordings

Elife. 2017 Nov 17:6:e29384. doi: 10.7554/eLife.29384.

Abstract

Revealing the current source distribution along the neuronal membrane is a key step on the way to understanding neural computations; however, the experimental and theoretical tools to achieve sufficient spatiotemporal resolution for the estimation remain to be established. Here, we address this problem using extracellularly recorded potentials with arbitrarily distributed electrodes for a neuron of known morphology. We use simulations of models with varying complexity to validate the proposed method and to give recommendations for experimental applications. The method is applied to in vitro data from rat hippocampus.

Keywords: CSD; LFP; current source density; inverse problem; kernel methods; local field potential; neuroscience; rat.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Computer Simulation
  • Hippocampus / physiology*
  • Membrane Potentials*
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Patch-Clamp Techniques
  • Rats, Wistar

Grants and funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.