Virtual Electrode Recording Tool for EXtracellular potentials (VERTEX): comparing multi-electrode recordings from simulated and biological mammalian cortical tissue.

Local field potentials (LFPs) sampled with extracellular electrodes are frequently used as a measure of population neuronal activity. However, relating such measurements to underlying neuronal behaviour and connectivity is non-trivial. To help study this link, we developed the Virtual Electrode Recording Tool for EXtracellular potentials (VERTEX).

Rates and rhythms: a synergistic view of frequency and temporal coding in neuronal networks.

In the CNS, activity of individual neurons has a small but quantifiable relationship to sensory representations and motor outputs. Coactivation of a few 10s to 100s of neurons can code sensory inputs and behavioral task performance within psychophysical limits. However, in a sea of sensory inputs and demand for complex motor outputs how is the activity of such small subpopulations of neurons organized? Two theories dominate in this respect: increases in spike rate (rate coding) and sharpening of the coincidence of spiking in active neurons (temporal coding).