Animal Feasibility Study of a Novel Spinal Cord Stimulation Multicolumn Lead (Heron Lead).

Background: Currently available spinal cord stimulation paddle leads require a laminectomy, limiting the types of clinicians who can implant and increasing the risk of complications. Recently, WISE S.r.

Broca's Area as a Pre-articulatory Phonetic Encoder: Gating the Motor Program.

The exact nature of the role of Broca's area in control of speech and whether it is exerted at the cognitive or at the motor level is still debated. Intraoperative evidence of a lack of motor responses to direct electrical stimulation (DES) of Broca's area and the observation that its stimulation induces a "speech arrest" without an apparent effect on the ongoing activity of phono-articulatory muscles, raises the argument. Essentially, attribution of direct involvement of Broca's area in motor control of speech, requires evidence of a functional connection of this area with the phono-articulatory muscles' motoneurons.

Functional Characterization of the Left Ventrolateral Premotor Cortex in Humans: A Direct Electrophysiological Approach.

In monkeys, motor outputs from premotor cortex (PM) involve cortico-cortical connections with primary motor cortex (M1). However, in humans, the functional organization of PM and its relationship with the corticospinal tract (CST) is still uncertain. This study was carried out in 21 patients undergoing intraoperative brain mapping prior to tumor resection.

Mirror Movements After Stroke Suggest Facilitation From Nonprimary Motor Cortex: A Case Presentation.

When stroke occurs in adulthood, mirror movements (MMs; involuntary movements occurring in 1 hand when performing unilateral movements with the contralateral hand) in the paretic hand rarely occur. We present a case of an apparently healthy 54-year-old man presenting with MMs in his left (nondominant) hand. Further evaluation revealed diminished strength and dexterity in left hand, increased spinal excitability, decreased corticospinal excitability, occurrence of ipsilateral motor responses, enlarged cortical motor representation, and imaging findings consistent with a previously undiagnosed right-subcortical stroke.

The mirror neuron system and the strange case of Broca's area.

Mirror neurons, originally described in the monkey premotor area F5, are embedded in a frontoparietal network for action execution and observation. A similar Mirror Neuron System (MNS) exists in humans, including precentral gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and superior temporal sulcus. Controversial is the inclusion of Broca's area, as homologous to F5, a relevant issue in light of the mirror hypothesis of language evolution, which postulates a key role of Broca's area in action/speech perception/production.