Intracranial Voltage Profiles from Untangled Human Deep Sources Reveal Multisource Composition and Source Allocation Bias.

Intracranial potentials are used as functional biomarkers of neural networks. As potentials spread away from the source populations, they become mixed in the recordings. In humans, interindividual differences in the gyral architecture of the cortex pose an additional challenge, as functional areas vary in location and extent.

Correlation dimension of high-dimensional and high-definition experimental time series.

The correlation dimension (CD) is a nonlinear measure of the complexity of invariant sets. First introduced for describing low-dimensional chaotic attractors, it has been later extended to the analysis of experimental electroencephalographic (EEG), magnetoencephalographic (MEG), and local field potential (LFP) recordings. However, its direct application to high-dimensional (dozens of signals) and high-definition (kHz sampling rate) 2HD data revealed a controversy in the results.

Diversity of cortical activity changes beyond depression during Spreading Depolarizations.

Spreading depolarizations (SDs) are classically thought to be associated with spreading depression of cortical activity. Here, we found that SDs in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage produce variable, ranging from depression to booming, changes in electrocorticographic activity, especially in the delta frequency band. In rats, depression of activity was characteristic of high-potassium-induced full SDs, whereas partial superficial SDs caused either little change or a boom of activity at the cortical vertex, supported by volume conduction of signals from spared delta generators in the deep cortical layers.

Uncorrelated bilateral cortical input becomes timed across hippocampal subfields for long waves whereas gamma waves are largely ipsilateral.

The role of interhemispheric connections along successive segments of cortico-hippocampal circuits is poorly understood. We aimed to obtain a global picture of spontaneous transfer of activity during non-theta states across several nodes of the bilateral circuit in anesthetized rats. Spatial discrimination techniques applied to bilateral laminar field potentials (FP) across the CA1/Dentate Gyrus provided simultaneous left and right readouts in five FP generators that reflect activity in specific hippocampal afferents and associative pathways.

A dietary polyphenol metabolite alters CA1 excitability ex vivo and mildly affects cortico-hippocampal field potential generators in anesthetized animals.

Dietary polyphenols have beneficial effects in situations of impaired cognition in acute models of neurodegeneration. The possibility that they may have a direct effect on the electrical activity of neuronal populations has not been tested. We explored the electrophysiological action of protocatechuic acid (PCA) on CA1 pyramidal cells ex vivo and network activity in anesthetized female rats using pathway-specific field potential (FP) generators obtained from laminar FPs in cortex and hippocampus.

Site-dependent shaping of field potential waveforms.

The activity of neuron populations gives rise to field potentials (FPs) that extend beyond the sources. Their mixing in the volume dilutes the original temporal motifs in a site-dependent manner, a fact that has received little attention. And yet, it potentially rids of physiological significance the time-frequency parameters of individual waves (amplitude, phase, duration).

The Critical Role of Spreading Depolarizations in Early Brain Injury: Consensus and Contention.

Background: When a patient arrives in the emergency department following a stroke, a traumatic brain injury, or sudden cardiac arrest, there is no therapeutic drug available to help protect their jeopardized neurons. One crucial reason is that we have not identified the molecular mechanisms leading to electrical failure, neuronal swelling, and blood vessel constriction in newly injured gray matter. All three result from a process termed spreading depolarization (SD).

Questioning Glutamate Excitotoxicity in Acute Brain Damage: The Importance of Spreading Depolarization.

Background: Within 2 min of severe ischemia, spreading depolarization (SD) propagates like a wave through compromised gray matter of the higher brain. More SDs arise over hours in adjacent tissue, expanding the neuronal damage. This period represents a therapeutic window to inhibit SD and so reduce impending tissue injury.

Different theta frameworks coexist in the rat hippocampus and are coordinated during memory-guided and novelty tasks.

Hippocampal firing is organized in theta sequences controlled by internal memory processes and by external sensory cues, but how these computations are coordinated is not fully understood. Although theta activity is commonly studied as a unique coherent oscillation, it is the result of complex interactions between different rhythm generators. Here, by separating hippocampal theta activity in three different current generators, we found epochs with variable theta frequency and phase coupling, suggesting flexible interactions between theta generators.

Mechanisms of the negative potential associated with Leão's spreading depolarization: A history of brain electrogenesis.

Spreading depolarization (SD) is a self-propagated wave that provokes transient disorder of numerous cell and tissue functions, and that may kill neurons in metabolically compromised tissue. We examined the mechanisms underlying the main hallmark of SD, a giant extracellular potential (ΔV) for which multiple electromotive forces have been proposed. The end-point is that neurons and not glia, dendritic channels and not spatial currents, and increased sodium conductance rather than potassium gradients, appear to be the main actors in the generation of the negative ΔV.

Volume-Conducted Origin of the Field Potential at the Lateral Habenula.

Field potentials (FPs) are easily reached signals that provide information about the brain's processing. However, FP should be interpreted cautiously since their biophysical bases are complex. The lateral habenula (LHb) is a brain structure involved in the encoding of aversive motivational values.

Slow-Wave Activity in the S1HL Cortex Is Contributed by Different Layer-Specific Field Potential Sources during Development.

Spontaneous correlated activity in cortical columns is critical for postnatal circuit refinement. We used spatial discrimination techniques to explore the late maturation of synaptic pathways through the laminar distribution of the field potential (FP) generators underlying spontaneous and evoked activities of the S1HL cortex in juvenile (P14-P16) and adult anesthetized rats. Juveniles exhibit an intermittent FP pattern resembling Up/Down states in adults, but with much reduced power and different laminar distribution.

Local and Volume-Conducted Contributions to Cortical Field Potentials.

Brain field potentials (FPs) can reach far from their sources, making difficult to know which waves come from where. We show that modern algorithms efficiently segregate the local and remote contributions to cortical FPs by recovering the generator-specific spatial voltage profiles. We investigated experimentally and numerically the local and remote origin of FPs in different cortical areas in anesthetized rats.

Local Field Potentials: Myths and Misunderstandings.

The intracerebral local field potential (LFP) is a measure of brain activity that reflects the highly dynamic flow of information across neural networks. This is a composite signal that receives contributions from multiple neural sources, yet interpreting its nature and significance may be hindered by several confounding factors and technical limitations. By and large, the main factor defining the amplitude of LFPs is the geometry of the current sources, over and above the degree of synchronization or the properties of the media.

The right hippocampus leads the bilateral integration of gamma-parsed lateralized information.

It is unclear whether the two hippocampal lobes convey similar or different activities and how they cooperate. Spatial discrimination of electric fields in anesthetized rats allowed us to compare the pathway-specific field potentials corresponding to the gamma-paced CA3 output (CA1 Schaffer potentials) and CA3 somatic inhibition within and between sides. Bilateral excitatory Schaffer gamma waves are generally larger and lead from the right hemisphere with only moderate covariation of amplitude, and drive CA1 pyramidal units more strongly than unilateral waves.

Recording, analysis, and interpretation of spreading depolarizations in neurointensive care: Review and recommendations of the COSBID research group.

Spreading depolarizations (SD) are waves of abrupt, near-complete breakdown of neuronal transmembrane ion gradients, are the largest possible pathophysiologic disruption of viable cerebral gray matter, and are a crucial mechanism of lesion development. Spreading depolarizations are increasingly recorded during multimodal neuromonitoring in neurocritical care as a causal biomarker providing a diagnostic summary measure of metabolic failure and excitotoxic injury. Focal ischemia causes spreading depolarization within minutes.

PyramidalExplorer: A New Interactive Tool to Explore Morpho-Functional Relations of Human Pyramidal Neurons.

This work presents PyramidalExplorer, a new tool to interactively explore and reveal the detailed organization of the microanatomy of pyramidal neurons with functionally related models. It consists of a set of functionalities that allow possible regional differences in the pyramidal cell architecture to be interactively discovered by combining quantitative morphological information about the structure of the cell with implemented functional models. The key contribution of this tool is the morpho-functional oriented design that allows the user to navigate within the 3D dataset, filter and perform Content-Based Retrieval operations.

Diversity of LFPs Activated in Different Target Regions by a Common CA3 Input.

Identifying the pathways contributing to local field potential (LFP) events and oscillations is essential to determine whether synchronous interregional patterns indicate functional connectivity. Here, we studied experimentally and numerically how different target structures receiving input from a common population shape their LFPs. We focused on the bilateral CA3 that sends gamma-paced excitatory packages to the bilateral CA1, the lateral septum, and itself (recurrent input).

The influence of synaptic size on AMPA receptor activation: a Monte Carlo model.

Physiological and electron microscope studies have shown that synapses are functionally and morphologically heterogeneous and that variations in size of synaptic junctions are related to characteristics such as release probability and density of postsynaptic AMPA receptors. The present article focuses on how these morphological variations impact synaptic transmission. We based our study on Monte Carlo computational simulations of simplified model synapses whose morphological features have been extracted from hundreds of actual synaptic junctions reconstructed by three-dimensional electron microscopy.

How spreading depolarization can be the pathophysiological correlate of both migraine aura and stroke.

The term spreading depolarization describes a mechanism of abrupt, massive ion translocation between neurons and the interstitial space, which leads to a cytotoxic edema in the gray matter of the brain. In energy-compromised tissue, spreading depolarization is preceded by a nonspreading silencing (depression of spontaneous activity) because of a neuronal hyperpolarization. By contrast, in tissue that is not energy compromised, spreading depolarization is accompanied by a spreading silencing (spreading depression) of spontaneous activity caused by a depolarization block.

Can pathway-specific LFPs be obtained in cytoarchitectonically complex structures?

Deciphering how the brain encodes the continuous flow of information contained in natural stimuli requires understanding the spontaneous activity of functional assemblies in multiple neuronal populations. A promising integrative approach that combines multisite recordings of local field potentials (LFP) with an independent component analysis (ICA) enables continuous readouts of population specific activities of functionally different neuron groups to be obtained. We previously used this technique successfully in the hippocampus, a single-layer neuronal structure.

Learning improvement after PI3K activation correlates with de novo formation of functional small spines.

PI3K activation promotes the formation of synaptic contacts and dendritic spines, morphological features of glutamatergic synapses that are commonly known to be related to learning processes. In this report, we show that in vivo administration of a peptide that activates the PI3K signaling pathway increases spine density in the rat hippocampus and enhances the animals' cognitive abilities, while in vivo electrophysiological recordings show that PI3K activation results in synaptic enhancement of Schaffer and stratum lacunosum moleculare inputs. Morphological characterization of the spines reveals that subjecting the animals to contextual fear-conditioning training per se promotes the formation of large spines, while PI3K activation reverts this effect and favors a general change toward small head areas.

Determining the true polarity and amplitude of synaptic currents underlying gamma oscillations of local field potentials.

Fluctuations in successive waves of oscillatory local field potentials (LFPs) reflect the ongoing processing of neuron populations. However, their amplitude, polarity and synaptic origin are uncertain due to the blending of electric fields produced by multiple converging inputs, and the lack of a baseline in standard AC-coupled recordings. Consequently, the estimation of underlying currents by laminar analysis yields spurious sequences of inward and outward currents.