Influence of spiking activity on cortical local field potentials

•  The intra‐cortical local field potential (LFP) reflects a variety of electrophysiological processes and is a fundamental signal used to enhance knowledge about neuroscience. •  For most investigations, spike‐free LFPs are mandatory for valid conclusions, but spikes can contaminate LFPs and falsify findings despite low‐pass filtering or other attempts to remove spiking activity from LFPs. The extent of this fundamental problem remains unclear. •  Using spikes recorded in the awake monkey, we revealed how spike amplitude, spike duration, firing rate and noise statistic influence the extent to which spikes contaminate LFPs. •  Contamination varies with these parameters and can affect LFPs down to around 10 Hz; below this it is theoretically possible but unlikely. LFP frequencies up to the (high‐) gamma band can remain unaffected, but signals above must always be carefully analysed. •  We propose a method to reveal modulations in spectrograms, which also allows the detection of spike contamination, and provide a systematic guide to assess spike contamination of intra‐cortical LFPs.

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