dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaModeling extracellular field potentials and the frequency-filtering properties of extracellular space
| Authors | Claude Bédard, Helmut Kröger, Alain Destexhe |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0303057 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0303057 |
| DOI | 10.1016/S0006-3495(04)74250-2 |
| Journal | Biophysics Journal 86 (2004) 1829-1842 |
Abstract
Extracellular local field potentials (LFP) are usually modeled as arising from a set of current sources embedded in a homogeneous extracellular medium. Although this formalism can successfully model several properties of LFPs, it does not account for their frequency-dependent attenuation with distance, a property essential to correctly model extracellular spikes. Here we derive expressions for the extracellular potential that include this frequency-dependent attenuation. We first show that, if the extracellular conductivity is non-homogeneous, there is induction of non-homogeneous charge densities which may result in a low-pass filter. We next derive a simplified model consisting of a punctual (or spherical) current source with spherically-symmetric conductivity/permittivity gradients around the source. We analyze the effect of different radial profiles of conductivity and permittivity on the frequency-filtering behavior of this model. We show that this simple model generally displays low-pass filtering behavior, in which fast electrical events (such as Na$^+$-mediated action potentials) attenuate very steeply with distance, while slower (K$^+$-mediated) events propagate over larger distances in extracellular space, in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. This simple model can be used to obtain frequency-dependent extracellular field potentials without taking into account explicitly the complex folding of extracellular space.
{
"annotation_id": "a44ff823-5af6-48a6-8bff-b3e35f549e24",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:42.738000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:42.738000Z",
"file_hash": "e9d5e1d809c4473e3098e18fe5339583f9974997020ff8df64e8e46683212c68",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Extracellular local field potentials (LFP) are usually modeled as arising\nfrom a set of current sources embedded in a homogeneous extracellular medium.\nAlthough this formalism can successfully model several properties of LFPs, it\ndoes not account for their frequency-dependent attenuation with distance, a\nproperty essential to correctly model extracellular spikes. Here we derive\nexpressions for the extracellular potential that include this\nfrequency-dependent attenuation. We first show that, if the extracellular\nconductivity is non-homogeneous, there is induction of non-homogeneous charge\ndensities which may result in a low-pass filter. We next derive a simplified\nmodel consisting of a punctual (or spherical) current source with\nspherically-symmetric conductivity/permittivity gradients around the source. We\nanalyze the effect of different radial profiles of conductivity and\npermittivity on the frequency-filtering behavior of this model. We show that\nthis simple model generally displays low-pass filtering behavior, in which fast\nelectrical events (such as Na$^+$-mediated action potentials) attenuate very\nsteeply with distance, while slower (K$^+$-mediated) events propagate over\nlarger distances in extracellular space, in qualitative agreement with\nexperimental observations. This simple model can be used to obtain\nfrequency-dependent extracellular field potentials without taking into account\nexplicitly the complex folding of extracellular space.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0303057",
"authors": [
"Claude B\u00e9dard",
"Helmut Kr\u00f6ger",
"Alain Destexhe"
],
"categories": [
"physics.bio-ph",
"q-bio"
],
"doi": "10.1016/S0006-3495(04)74250-2",
"journal_ref": "Biophysics Journal 86 (2004) 1829-1842",
"title": "Modeling extracellular field potentials and the frequency-filtering properties of extracellular space",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0303057"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "dfae2855-7ada-4e70-a6f5-5e8507341477",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}