Definition
The term local field potential (LFP) refers to the electrical field recorded using a small-sized electrode in the extracellular space of brain tissue that is referenced against an electrode recorded either inside or outside that tissue. Such recordings were first made in animals over 130 years ago (Caton 1875) and constitute an increasingly important tool both in neurophysiology and medicine. LFPs can be recorded using a wide variety of electrodes of varied impedance and geometry. In many experimental preparations, the primary purpose of the electrode will be to record action potentials, which are usually filtered above 500 Hz. The field potential represents the slow fluctuations, usually below 300 Hz, that are caused by all ionic process around the electrode (Buzsaki et al. 2012). Fluctuations in the LFP represent spatiotemporally synchronous events in these ionic processes, and LFPs are therefore typically used to measure large population responses to a stimulus or...
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References
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Sharott, A. (2014). Local Field Potential, Methods of Recording. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_723-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_723-1
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