Open AccessDifferential recordings of local field potential: A genuine tool to quantify functional connectivity
Author(s) -
Gabriel Meyer,
Julien Carponcy,
P. A. Salin,
Jean-Christophe Comte
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0209001
Subject(s) - local field potential , functional connectivity , neuroscience , electrophysiology , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , differential (mechanical device) , computer science , physics , signal (programming language) , biology , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , programming language
Local field potential (LFP) recording is a very useful electrophysiological method to study brain processes. However, this method is criticized for recording low frequency activity in a large area of extracellular space potentially contaminated by distal activity. Here, we theoretically and experimentally compare ground-referenced (RR) with differential recordings (DR). We analyze electrical activity in the rat cortex with these two methods. Compared with RR, DR reveals the importance of local phasic oscillatory activities and their coherence between cortical areas. Finally, we show that DR provides a more faithful assessment of functional connectivity caused by an increase in the signal to noise ratio, and of the delay in the propagation of information between two cortical structures.