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

TL;DR

VERTEX is a Matlab tool that simulates local field potentials from large neuronal populations, enabling direct comparison with biological recordings to better understand brain activity mechanisms.

Contribution

We developed VERTEX, a user-friendly simulation tool that models extracellular potentials from large neural populations, bridging the gap between computational models and experimental data.

Findings

VERTEX accurately reproduces features of in vitro LFP recordings.

The model captures spatial and frequency filtering characteristics of neocortical neurons.

Virtual electrodes can be placed arbitrarily in 3D for direct comparison with experiments.

Abstract

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). We first identified a reduced neuron model that retained the spatial and frequency filtering characteristics of extracellular potentials from neocortical neurons. We then developed VERTEX as an easy-to-use Matlab tool for simulating LFPs from large populations (>100 000 neurons). A VERTEX-based simulation successfully reproduced features of the LFPs from an in vitro multi-electrode array recording of macaque neocortical tissue. Our model, with virtual electrodes placed anywhere in 3D, allows direct comparisons with the in vitro recording setup. We envisage that VERTEX will stimulate experimentalists, clinicians, and computational neuroscientists to use models to understand the mechanisms underlying measured brain dynamics in health and disease.