Principles of Extracellular Single-Unit Recording

8 There is a rather large gap between membrane properties of individual neurons and behavior or physiological events. To bridge this gap, we need to be able to understand the activity of individual neurons and how that activity contributes to neuronal circuits. Extracellular microelectrode recording, which focuses on neuronal action potentials of individual neurons as the “code” used by the intact nervous system for transmitting information, is the method of choice for investigating questions at this level of analysis.