Synchronised Input
The local field potential is believed to represent the synchronised input into the observed area, as opposed to the spike data, which represents the output from the area. In the LFP, quick fluctuations in the potential difference are filtered out, leaving only the slower fluctuations. The quick fluctuations are caused by the short inward and outward currents of the action potential. Therefore the action potential plays no part in the LFP. The LFP is thus composed of the more sustained currents in the tissue, typical of the somato-dendritic currents. The major slow current is the postsynaptic potential (PSP). It was originally thought that EPSPs and IPSPs were the exclusive constituents of LFPs, but phenomena unrelated to synaptic events were later found to contribute to the signal (Kobayashi 1997; Kamondi 1998).
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