PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - J. P. Neto
AU  - F. P. Spitzner
AU  - V. Priesemann
TI  - A unified picture of neuronal avalanches arises from the understanding of sampling effects
AID  - 10.1101/759613
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 759613
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/04/759613.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/04/759613.full
AB  - To date, it is still impossible to sample the entire mammalian brain with single-neuron precision. This forces one to either use spikes (focusing on few neurons) or to use coarse-sampled activity (averaging over many neurons, e.g. LFP). Naturally, the sampling technique impacts inference about collective properties. Here, we emulate both sampling techniques on a spiking model to quantify how they alter observed correlations and signatures of criticality. We discover a general effect: when the inter-electrode distance is small, electrodes sample overlapping regions in space, which increases the correlation between the signals. For coarse-sampled activity, this can produce power-law distributions even for non-critical systems. In contrast, spike recordings enable one to distinguish the underlying dynamics. This explains why coarse measures and spikes have produced contradicting results in the past – that are now all consistent with a slightly subcritical regime.