iCSD can produce spurious results in dense electrode arrays

Abstract

Estimation of the current source density (CSD) is a commonly-used method to interpret local field potential (LFP) signals by estimating the location of the neural sinks and sources of current that give rise to the LFP. We show analytically that, when the inter-electrode spacing is small relative to the width of the current distribution, commonly used methods to estimate the CSD produces spurious results, calculating true sources as sinks and vice versa. By simulating a biologically-detailed subvolume of the rat somatosensory cortex with over 200,000 biophysically-detailed neurons, we show that, for high-density recording electrodes, the estimated CSD diverges from expected results, necessitating awareness and careful interpretation of CSD results.