Subthalamic nucleus physiology is correlated with deep brain stimulation motor and non-motor outcomes.

Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation is commonly indicated for symptomatic relief of idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Despite the known improvement in motor scores, affective, cognitive, voice and speech functions might deteriorate following this procedure. Recent studies have correlated motor outcomes with intraoperative microelectrode recordings.

Can the RAVLT predict deterioration from MCI to dementia? Data from long term follow up.

Objective: To assess whether the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) could differentiate deterioration from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to dementia.

Methods: Twenty-six participants who were diagnosed with MCI performed the RAVLT and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) at baseline and after nearly a decade (M = 8.8 years, SD = 3.

Spatial distribution and hemispheric asymmetry of electrically evoked experiential phenomena in the human brain.

Objective: Experiential phenomena (EP), such as illusions and complex hallucinations, are vivid experiences created in one's mind. They can occur spontaneously as epileptic auras or can be elicited by electrical brain stimulation (EBS) in patients undergoing presurgical evaluation for drug-resistant epilepsy. Previous work suggests that EP arise from activation of different nodes within interconnected neural networks mainly in the temporal lobes.

The Impact of Colloid Cyst Treatment on Neurocognition.

Background: Colloid cysts (CC) have been associated with neurocognitive function (NCF) decline, both preoperatively and after resection. Factors such as local pressure on the fornix and hydrocephalus are thought to contribute to preoperative NCF decline. The potential cause of postoperative decline is thought to be forniceal injury during surgery.

Near-total absence of REM sleep co-occurring with normal cognition: an update of the 1984 paper.

Background: REM sleep (REMS) is considered vital for supporting well-being and normal cognition. However, it remains unclear if and how decreases in REMS impair cognitive abilities. Rare case studies of patients with REMS abolishment due to pontine lesions remain sporadic, and formal evaluation of cognitive status is lacking.

Probabilistic machine learning for the evaluation of presurgical language dominance.

OBJECTIVE Providing a reliable assessment of language lateralization is an important task to be performed prior to neurosurgery in patients with epilepsy. Over the last decade, functional MRI (fMRI) has emerged as a useful noninvasive tool for language lateralization, supplementing or replacing traditional invasive methods. In standard practice, fMRI-based language lateralization is assessed qualitatively by visual inspection of fMRI maps at a specific chosen activation threshold.

Distinct iEEG activity patterns in temporal-limbic and prefrontal sites induced by emotional intentionality.

Our emotions tend to be directed towards someone or something. Such emotional intentionality calls for the integration between two streams of information; abstract hedonic value and its associated concrete content. In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we found that the combination of these two streams, as modeled by short emotional music excerpts and neutral film clips, was associated with synergistic activation in both temporal-limbic (TL) and ventral-lateral PFC (vLPFC) regions.

Selectivity of audiovisual ECoG responses revealed under naturalistic stimuli in the human cortex.

A fundamental debate in the study of cortical sensory systems concerns the scale of functional selectivity in cortical networks. Brain imaging studies have repeatedly demonstrated functional selectivity in entire cortical areas and networks using predetermined stimuli. However, it is not clear to what extent these networks are heterogeneous, i.

Spatial and object-based attention modulates broadband high-frequency responses across the human visual cortical hierarchy.

One of the puzzling aspects in the visual attention literature is the discrepancy between electrophysiological and fMRI findings: whereas fMRI studies reveal strong attentional modulation in the earliest visual areas, single-unit and local field potential studies yielded mixed results. In addition, it is not clear to what extent spatial attention effects extend from early to high-order visual areas. Here we addressed these issues using electrocorticography recordings in epileptic patients.

A widely distributed spectral signature of task-negative electrocorticography responses revealed during a visuomotor task in the human cortex.

While research of human cortical function has typically focused on task-related increases in neuronal activity, there is a growing interest in the complementary phenomenon-namely, task-induced reductions. Recent human BOLD fMRI studies have associated such reductions with a specific network termed the default mode network (DMN). However, detailed understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of task-negative responses and particularly how they compare across different cortical networks is lacking.

A revised intracarotid etomidate memory (Wada) procedure.

Objectives: To evaluate unilateral memory function by the means of a modified Montreal etomidate speech and memory procedure (e-SAM) in epilepsy patients who were candidates for standard anterior temporal lobectomy involving resection of mesial temporal lobe structures.

Materials And Methods: After the first three patients experienced significant side effects with the e-SAM procedure, we modified the procedure to a single bolus injection. The neuropsychological data of all 21 patients who underwent unilateral memory testing by means of intracarotid injection of etomidate were analyzed.

Enhanced functional synchronization of medial and lateral PFC underlies internally-guided action planning.

Actions are often internally guided, reflecting our covert will and intentions. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, including the pre-Supplementary Motor Area (pre-SMA), has been implicated in the internally generated aspects of action planning, such as choice and intention. Yet, the mechanism by which this area interacts with other cognitive brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a central node in decision-making, is still unclear.

Epilepsy surgery in children compared to adults.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of various surgical techniques and surgical outcome between pediatric and adult populations that underwent epilepsy surgery by the same team.

Methods: All patients who underwent epilepsy surgery at the Tel Aviv Medical Center between 1997 and 2006 and had been followed up for >2 years were eligible for this study. The majority (90%) of all epilepsy surgeries carried out in Israel were performed in this institution and by a single neurosurgeon.

Antagonistic relationship between gamma power and visual evoked potentials revealed in human visual cortex.

Scalp electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography studies have revealed a rapid evoked potential "adaptation" where one visual stimulus suppresses the event-related potential (ERP) of the second stimulus. Here, we investigated a similar effect revealed in subdural intracranial recordings in humans. Our results show that the suppression of the subdural ERP is not associated with a reduction in the gamma frequency power, considered to reflect the underlying neural activity.

Bilateral hippocampal lesion and a selective impairment of the ability for mental time travel.

Mental time travel allows individuals to mentally project themselves backwards and forwards in subjective time. This case report describes a young woman suddenly rendered amnesic as a result of bilateral hippocampal damage following an epileptic seizure and brain anoxia. Her neuropsychological profile was characterized by a high-average general level of cognitive functioning, selective deficit in episodic memory of past events and a significant difficulty to envisage her personal future.

Neural "ignition": enhanced activation linked to perceptual awareness in human ventral stream visual cortex.

Human recognition performance is characterized by abrupt changes in perceptual states. Understanding the neuronal dynamics underlying such transitions could provide important insights into mechanisms of recognition and perceptual awareness. Here we examined patients monitored for clinical purposes with multiple subdural electrodes.

Interhemispheric correlations of slow spontaneous neuronal fluctuations revealed in human sensory cortex.

Animal studies have shown robust electrophysiological activity in the sensory cortex in the absence of stimuli or tasks. Similarly, recent human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed widespread, spontaneously emerging cortical fluctuations. However, it is unknown what neuronal dynamics underlie this spontaneous activity in the human brain.

Language related reorganization in adult brain with slow growing glioma: fMRI prospective case-study.

One possible mechanism for language plasticity in cases of lesions in left dominant hemisphere is the recruitment of homologous region in the unaffected non-dominant hemisphere. The potential of the right hemisphere to carry out such plasticity is expressed by the functional outcome of patients with lesions in the left hemisphere acquired at childhood prior to language acquisition. Whether lesions in the dominant hemisphere acquired in adulthood can result in functional recovery of language by means of recruitment of the non-dominant hemisphere is undetermined.

Quality of life in seizure-free patients with epilepsy on monotherapy.

Epilepsy is a multifaceted chronic disorder which has diverse and complex effects on the well-being of the patient. Although it is evident that seizure type and frequency play a critical role in the quality of life (QOL) of patients with epilepsy, it is less clear what the major determinants are that influence QOL in seizure-free patients receiving monotherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic, clinical, and socioeconomic factors influencing the QOL of seizure-free patients receiving monotherapy.

Possible remote functional reorganization in left temporal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: To provide functional magnetic resonance imaging-based insight into the impact of left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) on language-related functional re-organization.

Materials And Methods: Ten right-handed patients with left TLE were compared with 10 matched healthy controls. Regional brain activation during the language task was measured in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), and the regional inter-hemispheric lateralization index (LI) was calculated.

Enhanced category tuning revealed by intracranial electroencephalograms in high-order human visual areas.

The functional organization of human sensory cortex was studied by comparing intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings of local field potentials in neurosurgical patients with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) obtained in healthy subjects. Using naturalistic movie stimuli, we found a tight correlation between these two measures throughout the human sensory cortex. Importantly, the correlation between the iEEG and fMRI signals was site-specific, exhibiting neuroanatomically specific coupling.

Hippocampal memory function as reflected by the intracarotid sodium methohexital Wada test.

The intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) determines lateralization of memory function for predicting the risk of amnesia after epilepsy surgery. Shortages of amobarbital led to its substitution with sodium methohexital in the intracarotid methohexital procedure (IMP). We compared IAP scores (32 patients) with IMP scores (20 patients).