Confounded spikes generated by synchrony within neural tissue models

Spike-sorting often requires subjective interpretation of extracellular waveforms to resolve the underlying neural activity. Often, multiple spike waveforms are detected at one site and interpreted as arising from multiple neurons. Because uncovering the relationship between the spike and the underlying intracellular activity is not tractable in vivo, a computer model of 128 multi-compartment neurons sharing common inputs was used to explore how synchronous firing impacts both the morphology and classification of the spikes. The results suggest that near-synchronous conditions yield multiple waveforms that could lead to missed spikes and a confounded interpretation of the number of neurons contributing to the recording. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.