A First Look: The Neurophysiological Response of the Brain to Pulses of Electrical Current in One Patient
Britni Crocker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Electrical stimulation of the brain is an important clinical tool for therapy and diagnosis. The most visible application is therapeutic brain stimulation, such as deep brain stimulation, in which patients receive electrical pulses through implanted electrical devices to alleviate symptoms related to neurological disease. Clinicians also use electrical brain stimulation to map the cortex before brain surgery for patients who will have either a malignant or an epileptogenic region of brain tissue removed. This electrical stimulation can be used to inform neurosurgeons on which areas of the cortex are responsible for essential motor and language tasks. This latter form of electrical stimulation is usually done in conjunction with neurophysiological recordings and provides a unique opportunity to study the mechanisms of electrical stimulation in the brain. Here we present preliminary results from one patient who, as part of clinical course, has electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain. In particular, we have recorded signals during standard clinical mapping stimulation and during electrical stimulation paradigms of our own design. Initially, we show how electrical stimulation can be used to map the spatial structure of functional connectivity. In addition, insights from trial-by-trial variances in the response could potentially lead the way to the development of closed-loop algorithms for better therapeutic stimulation.
Abstract Author(s): Britni Crocker, Ronan D. Kilbride, Emad N. Eskandar, Sydney S. Cash