Electrocorticogram Research Articles

Effects of agomelatine on electrocorticogram activity on penicillin-induced seizure model of rats

Agomelatine is a new antidepressant drug acting as an antagonist of 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2C (5-HTR2C) and agonist of melatonergic receptors 1 and 2 (MT1 and MT2). Because of this dual action, it is an atypical antidepressant. The aim of this study was to investigate chronic anticonvulsant effects of agomelatine on penicillin-induced epilepsy model. Adult male Sprague–Dawley rats divided into four groups and were administered with tap water (vehicle), and agomelatine doses of 10 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg for 14 days via oral gavage. After the last doses were given, epileptic seizures were induced by intracortical penicillin (500 IU/2.5 μl) application in rats under urethane (1.25 g/kg intraperitoneal) anesthesia. Electrocorticogram (ECoG) recordings were obtained from the somatomotor cortex through 90 min, and spike frequencies and amplitudes were analyzed. The spike frequency analyses revealed that only 50 mg/kg agomelatine administration decreased the spike frequencies of hypersynchronous discharge of neurons caused by penicillin (p < 0.05). No significant differences in amplitudes between experimental groups were observed. In addition, mRNA expressions of vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1) and vesicular gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter (VGAT) in response to the agomelatine active dose, 50 mg/kg, showed no significant effect of agomelatine on the mRNA expression. Our results indicate that chronic treatment with agomelatine may have potential anticonvulsant effects. Agomelatine may be a promising drug for epilepsy patients having depression due to its antiepileptic and antidepressant effects.

The Acute Post-Traumatic Period in Rats Is Accompanied by an Anxiety State and a Decrease in the Proportion of REM Sleep

The sequelae of craniocerebral trauma (CCT) were studied using a model based on severe (3–4 atm) lateral hydrodynamic percussion (liquid-percussive brain injury) in male Sprague–Dawley rats. With the aim of detecting the symptoms of anxiety states, the rats’ behavior was assessed in the dark-light box and the elevated plus maze test; sleep impairments were detected by recording the electrocorticogram (ECoG) before trauma and during the first week after trauma. The results provided evidence of the post-CCT development of signs of an anxiety state, accompanied by decreases in the proportion of REM sleep and decreases in the amplitude and frequency of the ECoG during this phase.

Improving electrocorticograms of awake and anaesthetized mice using wavelet denoising

Abstract The quality of bioelectrical signals is essential for functional evaluation of cellular circuits. The electrical activity recorded from the cortical brain surface represents the average of many individual synaptic processes. By downsizing micro-electrode arrays, the spatial resolution of electrocortico-grams (ECoGs) can be increased. But, upon increasing electrode impedance, recorded noise from the electrode-tissue interface and the surroundings will become more prominent. Frequently, signal interpretation is improved by post-processing using filtering or pattern recognition. For a variety of applications, wavelet denoising has become an accepted tool. Here, we present how wavelet denoising affects the signal-to-noise ratio of ECoGs. The recording qualities from awake and anesthetized mice was artificially reduced by adding two noise models prior to filtering. Raw and filtered signals were compared by calculating the linear correlation coefficient.

Pilocarpine/ascorbic acid interaction in the immature brain: Electrophysiological and oxidative effects in well-nourished and malnourished rats

Ascorbic acid (AA) administration has been associated with neuroprotection against oxidative stress, although at high doses it can facilitate oxidation and acts like a proconvulsing drug. The pilocarpine-induced epilepsy model has been widely studied. However, less is known about the effects of sub-convulsive doses of pilocarpine on brain activity in immature animals under normal or deficient nutritional conditions. Herein, we investigated the effects of chronic pilocarpine administration in a sub-convulsive dose, with or without AA, on the excitability-related phenomenon denominated as cortical spreading depression (CSD) and levels of lipid peroxidation-induced malondialdehyde in well-nourished and malnourished rats. At postnatal days 7–28, rats received no gavage treatment (naïve group), saline (vehicle group), 45 mg/kg/d of pilocarpine and/or 120 mg/kg/d of AA. CSD propagation and malondialdehyde levels were analyzed at 34–40 days. The pilocarpine group presented with lower CSD velocities, while AA groups exhibited higher CSD velocities and augmented malondialdehyde levels compared with controls. The co-administration of AA partially antagonized the pilocarpine CSD effects, but did not revert it to control levels. Malnutrition increased CSD amplitude and velocity in comparison to the well-nourished condition. The electrocorticogram (ECoG) amplitude increased after CSD (ECoG potentiation) when compared with the baseline amplitude before CSD. However, no intergroup difference was observed in this CSD-related ECoG potentiation. The results support the hypothesis of a pilocarpine/ascorbic acid interaction in the immature rat brain and might help further the understanding of this interaction on neuronal electrical activity and oxidative stress.

Electrocortical and Biochemical Evaluation of Antidepressant Efficacy of Formulated Nanocurcumin.

The present study aims to evaluate the antidepressant efficacy of curcumin nanoparticles on rat model of depression induced by reserpine. Rats were divided into control, the rat model of depression induced by daily i.p. injection of reserpine (0.2mg/kg for 21days), and the rat model of depression treated daily with the formulated CNPs (20mg/kg for 7 and 15days). The behavioral evaluation was assessed for all groups of animals by the forced swim test (FST). Monoamine neurotransmitters were measured in the cortex and hippocampus via fluorescence spectroscopy. The electrophysiological evaluation was carried out by recording and analyzing the electrocorticogram (ECoG) in a group of animals that served as self-control. The chronic administration of reserpine resulted in a significant decrease in the duration of the active phase in the FST; a significant decrease in the cortical and hippocampal levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine; a significant increase in spectral power of alpha and delta waves; and a significant decrease in spectral power of theta, beta-1, and beta-2 waves with respect to control values. Administration of CNPs for 7days has improved the performance of animals in FST indicated by the increase in the duration of the active phase. Additionally, the levels of serotonin and dopamine have been restored; however, the level of norepinephrine has been not completely recovered in both cortex and hippocampus. A significant increase in alpha and beta-2 waves, an increase in theta and beta-1, and a decrease in delta waves have been recorded after 7days of treatment. Extending treatment with CNPs for 15days has succeeded in restoring the active phase in FST and monoamine level in the cortex and hippocampus to control like values. In addition, ECoG waves have returned to near control like values. It could be concluded that the formulated nanocurcumin has an effective and potent antidepressant activity that was evidenced by electrical, chemical, and behavioral tests.

Investigation of the Influence of ECoG Grid Spatial Density on Decoding Hand Flexion and Extension.

Electrocorticogram (ECoG) has been used as a reliable modality to control a brain machine interface (BMI). Recently, promising results of high-density ECoG have shown that non redundant information can be recorded with finer spatial resolution from the cortical surface. In this study, highdensity ECoG was recorded intraoperatively from two patients during awake brain surgery while performing instructed hand flexion and extension. Event related desynchronization (ERD) were found in the low frequency band (LFB: 8-32 Hz) band while event related synchronization (ERS) were found in the high frequency band (HFB: 60-200 Hz). The classification between hand flexion and extension was performed by using common spatial pattern (CSP) as a feature extraction technique and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) as a classifier. In order to compare the high-density ECoG and normal ECoG in terms of classifying between hand flexion and extension, we simulated a typical clinical ECoG (8 mm spacing) by averaging the neural activity of nearest four channels. The same classification methods were applied on the averaged recordings. In HFB, the classification error rate using simulated ECoG greatly increased and lagged the movement onset compared to the original highdensity ECoG. In LFB, the differences between them were not prominent. These results indicated that high-density ECoG is able to capture non-redundant task-related information from the motor cortex and potentially serves as a better modality to drive a neural prosthetic compared to typical clinical electrodes.

Long-term evaluation and feasibility study of the insulated screw electrode for ECoG recording

BackgroundA screw-shaped electrode can offer a compromise between signal quality and invasiveness. However, the standard screw electrode can be vulnerable to electrical noise while directly contact with the skull or skin, and the feasibility and stability for chronic implantation in primate have not been fully evaluated. New MethodWe designed a novel screw electrocorticogram (ECoG) electrode composed of three parts: recording electrode, insulator, and nut. The recording electrode was made of titanium with high biocompatibility and high electrical conductivity. Zirconia is used for insulator and nut to prevent electrical noise. ResultIn computer simulations, the screw ECoG with insulator showed a significantly higher performance in signal acquisition compared to the condition without insulator. In a non-human primate, using screw ECoG, clear visual-evoked potential (VEP) waveforms were obtained, VEP components were reliably maintained, and the electrode’s impedance was stable during the whole evaluation period. Moreover, it showed higher SNR and wider frequency band compared to the electroencephalogram (EEG). We also observed the screw ECoG has a higher sensitivity that captures different responses on various stimuli than the EEG. ComparisonThe screw ECoG showed reliable electrical characteristic and biocompatibility for three months, that shows great promise for chronic implants. These results contrasted with previous reports that general screw electrode was only applicable for acute applications. ConclusionThe suggested electrode can offer whole-brain monitoring with high signal quality and minimal invasiveness. The screw ECoG can be used to provide more in-depth understanding, not only relationship between functional networks and cognitive behavior, but also pathomechanisms in brain diseases.

Wireless opto-electro neural interface for experiments with small freely behaving animals

Objective. We have developed a wireless opto-electro interface (WOENI) device, which combines electrocorticogram (ECoG) recording and optical stimulation for bi-directional neuromodulation on small, freely behaving animals, such as rodents. Approach. The device is comprised of two components, a detachable headstage and an implantable polyimide-based substrate. The headstage establishes a bluetooth low energy (BLE) bi-directional data communication with an external custom-designed USB dongle for receiving user commands and optogenetic stimulation patterns, and sending digitalized ECoG data. Main results. The functionality and stability of the device were evaluated in vivo on freely behaving rats. When the animal received optical stimulation on the primary visual cortex (V1) and visual stimulation via eyes, spontaneous changes in ECoG signals were recorded from both left and right V1 during four consecutive experiments with 7 d intervals over a time span of 21 d following device implantation. Immunostained tissue analyses showed results consistent with ECoG analyses, validating the efficacy of optical stimulation to upregulate the activity of cortical neurons expressing ChR2. Significance. The proposed WOENI device is potentially a versatile tool in the studies that involve long-term optogenetic neuromodulation.

Sleep-wake rhythm after extracorporeal circulation in New Zealand rabbits

To evaluate the change of sleep-wake rhythm after extracorporeal circulation (ECC) in New Zealand rabbits, and to explore the role of clock genes in sleep-wake rhythm disorder by ECC. Methods: A total of 54 New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups: a normal group (Group N), a sham group (Group S) and a model group (Group ECC). Electrocorticogram (ECOG), electroophthalmogram (EOG) and electromyogram (EMG) were respectively recorded by multipurpose EEG recorder, and the sleep-wake rhythm was also recorded. The mRNA and protein expressions of period1 (Per1) and cryptochrome1 (Cry1) were detected by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot in pineal gland of rabbits. The differences between the 3 groups were compared. Results: 1) Compared with the Group N and Group S at 24, 48 h respectively, the total amount of sleep (TAS), light time, slow wave sleep (SWS) in the Group ECC at 24, 48 h were significantly reduced (all P<0.05), and the proportion of light sleep increased (all P<0.05), the proportion of SWS decreased (all P<0.05); 2) Compared with the Group N and Group S, the expression of Per1 mRNA in the Group ECC at 24, 48 h and Cry1 mRNA at 24 h significantly increased (all P<0.05); 3) Compared with the Group N and Group S, the expression of Per1 protein in the Group ECC at 48 h and Cry1 protein at 24 h significantly increased (all P<0.05); 4) In the Group ECC, the sleep-wake rhythm disorder and clock genes expression were ameliorated at 72 h after surgery. Conclusion: ECC can cause sleep-wake rhythm disorder in New Zealand rabbits, which may be related to the abnormal expression of Per1 and Cry1, and their transcription proteins.

Detailed spectral profile analysis of electrocorticograms during freezing against penicillin-induced epileptiform discharges in the anesthetized rat

ObjectivesCryosurgery is an alternative technique for minimally invasive treatment of lesions. We have recently examined cryosurgery for epilepsy in animal models, and found that penicillin G (PG)-induced epileptiform discharges (EDs) mostly vanished after freezing. However, EDs were provoked again after insufficient freezing. Inadequate freezing is not visually detectable during and just after freezing and is not predictable beforehand. To manage this problem, we examined whether intraoperative monitoring of electrocorticograms (ECoGs) can predict recurrence of EDs after cryosurgery. MethodsA palm-sized cryoprobe system was applied to focal seizures in a Wistar rat model in which EDs were induced in advance by intracerebral injection of PG. During stable induction of EDs, the cryoprobe was carefully inserted into the epileptic region and this region was immediately frozen. After the series of prefreezing, freezing, and postfreezing, rats in which PG-induced EDs relapsed within 3 h were defined as the ED-relapsed (EDR) group, and other rats were defined as the ED-vanished (EDV) group. Time-frequency analysis was conducted on the ECoGs in each group through each freezing series. ResultsRelapse of PG-induced EDs on ECoG after the freezing series was associated with the remaining power of the delta band in the freezing period more strongly in the EDR group than in the EDV group. ConclusionsSuccess or failure of the freezing procedure can be predicted by the specificity of the delta band of the ECoG obtained intraoperatively.

Circadian and Brain State Modulation of Network Hyperexcitability in Alzheimer's Disease.

Network hyperexcitability is a feature of Alzheimer’ disease (AD) as well as numerous transgenic mouse models of AD. While hyperexcitability in AD patients and AD animal models share certain features, the mechanistic overlap remains to be established. We aimed to identify features of network hyperexcitability in AD models that can be related to epileptiform activity signatures in AD patients. We studied network hyperexcitability in mice expressing amyloid precursor protein (APP) with mutations that cause familial AD, and compared a transgenic model that overexpresses human APP (hAPP) (J20), to a knock-in model expressing APP at physiological levels (APPNL/F). We recorded continuous long-term electrocorticogram (ECoG) activity from mice, and studied modulation by circadian cycle, behavioral, and brain state. We report that while J20s exhibit frequent interictal spikes (IISs), APPNL/F mice do not. In J20 mice, IISs were most prevalent during daylight hours and the circadian modulation was associated with sleep. Further analysis of brain state revealed that IIS in J20s are associated with features of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We found no evidence of cholinergic changes that may contribute to IIS-circadian coupling in J20s. In contrast to J20s, intracranial recordings capturing IIS in AD patients demonstrated frequent IIS in non-REM (NREM) sleep. The salient differences in sleep-stage coupling of IIS in APP overexpressing mice and AD patients suggests that different mechanisms may underlie network hyperexcitability in mice and humans. We posit that sleep-stage coupling of IIS should be an important consideration in identifying mouse AD models that most closely recapitulate network hyperexcitability in human AD.

Characterization of Hand Clenching in Human Sensorimotor Cortex Using High-, and Ultra-High Frequency Band Modulations of Electrocorticogram.

Functional mapping of eloquent cortex before the resection of a tumor is a critical procedure for optimizing survival and quality of life. In order to locate the hand area of the motor cortex in two patients with low-grade gliomas (LGG), we recorded electrocorticogram (ECoG) from a 113 channel hybrid high-density grid (64 large contacts with diameter of 2.7 mm and 49 small contacts with diameter of 1 mm) while they executed hand clenching movements. We investigated the spatio-spectral characteristics of the neural oscillatory activity and observed that, in both patients, the hand movements were consistently associated with a wide spread power decrease in the low frequency band (LFB: 8–32 Hz) and a more localized power increase in the high frequency band (HFB: 60–280 Hz) within the sensorimotor region. Importantly, we observed significant power increase in the ultra-high frequency band (UFB: 300–800 Hz) during hand movements of both patients within a restricted cortical region close to the central sulcus, and the motor cortical “hand knob.” Among all frequency bands we studied, the UFB modulations were closest to the central sulcus and direct cortical stimulation (DCS) positive site. Both HFB and UFB modulations exhibited different timing characteristics at different locations. Power increase in HFB and UFB starting before movement onset was observed mostly at the anterior part of the activated cortical region. In addition, the spatial patterns in HFB and UFB indicated a probable postcentral shift of the hand motor function in one of the patients. We also compared the task related subband modulations captured by the small and large contacts in our hybrid grid. We did not find any significant difference in terms of band power changes. This study shows initial evidence that event-driven neural oscillatory activity recorded from ECoG can reach up to 800 Hz. The spatial distribution of UFB oscillations was found to be more focalized and closer to the central sulcus compared to LFB and HFB. More studies are needed to characterize further the functional significance of UFB relative to LFB and HFB.

Functional Connectomes in Time Domain from Simulated Neurotransmitter Release Based on Electrocorticograms.

This paper uses a newly defined functional connectome and connectome values calculated in time domain of simulated neurotransmitter release (NTR) from an electrocorticogram (ECoG) to distinguish between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. The NTR derived from multiple channels releasing one quantum at the same time suggests that one functional connectome occurs across those channels at that time. During the first 600 ms after conditional stimulation, the connectome indexes of the 64-channel NTR trains were sorted from the 8 to 20 Hz band obtained from filtered rabbit ECoGs recorded from the visual cortices. In the small scale visual cortex area, this association was significantly larger than the habituation, even though the trial-to-trail variability of large scale synchrony after conditional stimulation is increased, which is also consistent with the hypothesis that attention decreases coherence of lower frequency within each cortical area. The increased conectome index suggests that the stimuli related to association are able to generate stronger substantial responses in the small scale visual cortex than habituation. That is, besides of the background cortical states as well as attention-related decreases in synchrony of lower frequency, the increased part of neurotransmitters released simultaneously from the pre-synaptic terminals of small scale visual cortex for association is larger than habituation.

Minimally-Invasive Neural Interface for Distributed Wireless Electrocorticogram Recording Systems.

This paper presents a minimally-invasive neural interface for distributed wireless electrocorticogram (ECoG) recording systems. The proposed interface equips all necessary components for ECoG recording, such as the high performance front-end integrated circuits, a fabricated flexible microelectrode array, and wireless communication inside a miniaturized custom-made platform. The multiple units of the interface systems can be deployed to cover a broad range of the target brain region and transmit signals via a built-in intra-skin communication (ISCOM) module. The core integrated circuit (IC) consists of 16-channel, low-power push-pull double-gated preamplifiers, in-channel successive approximation register analog-to-digital converters (SAR ADC) with a single-clocked bootstrapping switch and a time-delayed control unit, an ISCOM module for wireless data transfer through the skin instead of a power-hungry RF wireless transmitter, and a monolithic voltage/current reference generator to support the aforementioned analog and mixed-signal circuit blocks. The IC was fabricated using 250 nm CMOS processes in an area of 3.2 × 0.9 mm2 and achieved the low-power operation of 2.5 µW per channel. Input-referred noise was measured as 5.62 µVrms for 10 Hz to 10 kHz and ENOB of 7.21 at 31.25 kS/s. The implemented system successfully recorded multi-channel neural activities in vivo from a primate and demonstrated modular expandability using the ISCOM with power consumption of 160 µW.

Heterogeneous Redistribution of Facial Subcategory Information Within and Outside the Face-Selective Domain in Primate Inferior Temporal Cortex.

The inferior temporal cortex (ITC) contains neurons selective to multiple levels of visual categories. However, the mechanisms by which these neurons collectively construct hierarchical category percepts remain unclear. By comparing decoding accuracy with simultaneously acquired electrocorticogram (ECoG), local field potentials (LFPs), and multi-unit activity in the macaque ITC, we show that low-frequency LFPs/ECoG in the early evoked visual response phase contain sufficient coarse category (e.g., face) information, which is homogeneous and enhanced by spatial summation of up to several millimeters. Late-induced high-frequency LFPs additionally carry spike-coupled finer category (e.g., species, view, and identity of the face) information, which is heterogeneous and reduced by spatial summation. Face-encoding neural activity forms a cluster in similar cortical locations regardless of whether it is defined by early evoked low-frequency signals or late-induced high-gamma signals. By contrast, facial subcategory-encoding activity is distributed, not confined to the face cluster, and dynamically increases its heterogeneity from the early evoked to late-induced phases. These findings support a view that, in contrast to the homogeneous and static coarse category-encoding neural cluster, finer category-encoding clusters are heterogeneously distributed even outside their parent category cluster and dynamically increase heterogeneity along with the local cortical processing in the ITC.

A Marked Point Process Framework for Extracellular Electrical Potentials.

Neuromodulations are an important component of extracellular electrical potentials (EEP), such as the Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrocorticogram (ECoG) and Local Field Potentials (LFP). This spatially temporal organized multi-frequency transient (phasic) activity reflects the multiscale spatiotemporal synchronization of neuronal populations in response to external stimuli or internal physiological processes. We propose a novel generative statistical model of a single EEP channel, where the collected signal is regarded as the noisy addition of reoccurring, multi-frequency phasic events over time. One of the main advantages of the proposed framework is the exceptional temporal resolution in the time location of the EEP phasic events, e.g., up to the sampling period utilized in the data collection. Therefore, this allows for the first time a description of neuromodulation in EEPs as a Marked Point Process (MPP), represented by their amplitude, center frequency, duration, and time of occurrence. The generative model for the multi-frequency phasic events exploits sparseness and involves a shift-invariant implementation of the clustering technique known as k-means. The cost function incorporates a robust estimation component based on correntropy to mitigate the outliers caused by the inherent noise in the EEP. Lastly, the background EEP activity is explicitly modeled as the non-sparse component of the collected signal to further improve the delineation of the multi-frequency phasic events in time. The framework is validated using two publicly available datasets: the DREAMS sleep spindles database and one of the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) competition datasets. The results achieve benchmark performance and provide novel quantitative descriptions based on power, event rates and timing in order to assess behavioral correlates beyond the classical power spectrum-based analysis. This opens the possibility for a unifying point process framework of multiscale brain activity where simultaneous recordings of EEP and the underlying single neuron spike activity can be integrated and regarded as marked and simple point processes, respectively.

Cortical slow wave activity correlates with striatal synaptic strength in normal but not in Parkinsonian rats

Urethane-induced cortical slow wave activity (SWA) spreads into the basal ganglia in dopamine (DA)-depleted rat models of Parkinson's disease (PD). During physiological sleep, SWA is powerfully expressed at the beginning of night and progressively reduced during sleep-time reflecting the sleep need. However, its underlying slow oscillations may contribute directly to modulate cortical plasticity.In order to determine the impact of the SWA on synaptic strength and its interplay with DA, we simultaneously recorded the electrocorticogram (ECoG) and the corticocortical- and corticostriatal-evoked potentials (CC-EPs, CS-EPs) during eight hours of robust urethane-induced SWA in both normal and PD animals. A subgroup of PD rats was assessed with repetitive apomorphine (APO) administrations.Normal animals showed a progressive reduction of SWA power during urethane-induced SWA. Compared to normal animals, PD animals showed lower SWA power at the start of anesthesia without a significant reduction over time. Accordingly, synaptic strength measured by CC- and CS-EP amplitudes decreased in normal but not in Parkinsonian rats. The PD animals treated with APO showed a CS-EP amplitude reduction comparable to normal animals. Interestingly, SWA power directly correlated with CS-EP amplitude in normal animals.These data support the hypothesis that cortical SWA is directly associated with the regulation of synaptic efficacy in which DA exerts a crucial role.

Binary Classification on ECoG Signals Using Optimized Extremely Learning Machine

In order to improve the accuracy of brain signal processing and accelerate speed meanwhile, we present an optimal and intelligent method for large dataset classification application in this paper. Optimized Extreme Learning Machine (OELM) is introduced in ElectroCorticoGram (ECoG) feature classification of motor imaginary-based brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with common spatial pattern (CSP) to extract the feature. When comparing it with other conventional classification methods like SVM and ELM, we exploit several metrics to evaluate the performance of all the adopted methods objectively. The accuracy of the proposed BCI system approaches approximately 92.31% when classifying ECoG epochs into left hand little finger or tongue movement, while the highest accuracy obtained by other methods is no more than 81%, which substantiates that OELM is more efficient than SVM, ELM, etc. Moreover, the simulation results also demonstrate that OELM will significantly improve the performance with p-value being far less than 0.001. Hence, the proposed OELM is satisfactory in addressing non-stationarity of ECoG signal.

Subdural recording in epilepsy

It is the cortices and the cortico-cortical connections that are involved in manifestation of normal cortical functions as well as production of seizure symptoms. In this sense, presurgical evaluation of patients with intractable partial epilepsy helps us delineate cortical functions and networks at the individual level. In return, the advancement of clinical system neuroscience brought us better understanding and evaluation of clinical epileptology. Advancements of the digital EEG system enabled direct recording of neural activities with wideband electrocorticogram (ECoG). Wideband ECoG recording provided a comprehensive approach to probe epileptogenicity by combining both low (slow shift) and high (spontaneous and induced high gamma oscillations) ends of frequencies. Electrical cortical stimulation in epilepsy surgery can delineate the cortex responsible for a particular task by making transient focal functional impairment, which is in sharp contrast to chronic stroke lesions that are relatively large and usually associated with cortical plastic compensation. Cortico-cortical evoked potential (CCEP) is a recently developed, in vivo electrical tract tracing method for presurgical evaluation. It promises to refine our understanding of surgical candidacy, first through a more precise and tailored evaluation of the seizure network in each individual patient, and second through greater understanding of the functional systems of the brain involved, such as language and praxis. We introduce comprehensive mapping of these higher functions by combining the state-of-art system neuroscience methods, such as a modified quantitative method for high frequency electrical cortical stimulation, ECoG signal analysis and decoding, and CCEP.

Effect of diet with omega-3 in basal brain electrical activity and during status epilepticus in rats

Western diets are high in saturated fat and low in omega-3. Certain animals cannot produce omega-3 from their own lipids, making it necessary for it to be acquired from the diet. However, omega-3s are important components of the plasma membrane, and altering their proportions can promote physical and chemical alterations in the membranes, which may modify neuronal excitability. These alterations occur in healthy individuals, as well as in patients with epilepsy who are more sensitive to changes in brain electrical activity. This study evaluated the effect of a diet supplemented with omega-3 on the basal brain electrical activity both before and during status epilepticus in rats. To evaluate the brain electrical activity, we recorded electrocorticograms (ECoG) of animals both with and without omega-3 supplementation before and during status epilepticus induced by pilocarpine. Calculation of the average brain wave power by a power spectrum revealed that omega-3 supplementation reduced the average power of the delta wave by 20% and increased the average power of the beta wave by 45%. These effects were exacerbated when status epilepticus was induced in the animals supplemented with omega-3. The animals with and without omega-3 supplementation exhibited increases in basal brain electrical activities during status epilepticus. The two groups showed hyperactivity, but no significant difference between them was noted. Even though the brain activity levels observed during status epilepticus were similar between the two groups, neuron damage to the animals supplemented with omega-3 was more slight, revealing the neuroprotective effect of the omega-3.