Publication Alert
July 23 2024
This study aimed to determine if oscillatory neuronal activity, represented by local field potentials (LFPs), varies between cortical layers and if these laminar patterns are consistent across different cortical areas and species. Researchers analyzed LFPs from intracortical recordings, from 14 different cortical areas, in rhesus macaque monkeys using multi-contact laminar probes.
Key Discussion Points:
- Given the laminar nature of this microcircuit, it will be crucial to establish laminar recordings as the common practice across electrophysiological studies of the cortex.
- The spectrolaminar approach will allow all electrophysiological studies of the cortex to use a common anatomical laminar reference as well as a common functional reference in the frequency domain. This standardized approach will lead to a better understanding of the specific roles of individual layers in cortical computations.
- This standardized approach will lead to a better understanding of the specific roles of individual layers in cortical computations.
Plexon products in this study include:
a. Both Probes were used to record LFP signals across all cortical layers. In each session, researchers implanted 1–6 laminar probes into each recording chamber with 100-µm, 150-µm or 200-µm inter-site spacing and 16, 24 or 32 total contacts/channels per probe. This resulted in a total linear sampling of 3.0–3.1 mm on each probe.
Fig. 1: Laminar recording methods and laminar differences in LFP oscillatory power.
a, Inflated cortical surface of the macaque brain showing cortical areas recorded depicted using Caret software60 on the F99 template brain and using Lewis and van Essen61 area parcellation scheme. b, Structural MRI nearly-coronal section of one monkey from study 2 showing recording chamber grid (top) and location of areas MT, MST, 7A, 5, MIP and LIP on the right hemisphere. Yellow lines show the locations of example probes in all areas. c, Nissl section from the same monkey corresponding to a ×10 magnification of the black rectangular region in b with an example probe diagram showing the locations of recording channels (black dots) with respect to the cortical layers in area LIP. WM, white matter. d,g, Relative power as a function of frequency in a superficial-layer channel and a deep-layer channel from two example probes in areas LIP (d) and MT (g). e,h, Relative power maps for the two example probes. f,i, Relative power averaged in the alpha-beta (blue) and gamma (red) frequency bands as a function of laminar depth for the two example probes. Laminar depths are measured with respect to the alpha-beta/gamma crossover.
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