The influence of skull defects and reperfusion after extra-intracranial arterial bypass surgery on the sensorimotor EEG rhythm

Whole-scalp EEG mapping of somatosensory evoked potentials in macaque monkeys

High-density scalp EEG recordings are widely used to study whole-brain neuronal networks in humans non-invasively. Here, we validate EEG mapping of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) in macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) for the long-term investigation of large-scale neuronal networks and their reorganisation after lesions requiring a craniotomy. SSEPs were acquired from 33 scalp electrodes in five adult anaesthetized animals after electrical median or tibial nerve stimulation. SSEP scalp potential maps were identified by cluster analysis and identified in individual recordings. A distributed, linear inverse solution was used to estimate the intracortical sources of the scalp potentials. SSEPs were characterised by a sequence of components with unique scalp topographies. Source analysis confirmed that median nerve SSEP component maps were in accordance with the somatotopic organisation of the sensorimotor cortex. Most importantly, SSEP recordings were stable both intra- and interindividually. We aim to apply this method to the study of recovery and reorganisation of large-scale neuronal networks following a focal cortical lesion requiring a craniotomy. As a prerequisite, the present study demonstrated that a 300-mm² unilateral craniotomy over the sensorimotor cortex necessary to induce a cortical lesion, followed by bone flap repositioning, suture and gap plugging with calcium phosphate cement, did not induce major distortions of the SSEPs. In conclusion, SSEPs can be successfully and reproducibly recorded from high-density EEG caps in macaque monkeys before and after a craniotomy, opening new possibilities for the long-term follow-up of the cortical reorganisation of large-scale networks in macaque monkeys after a cortical lesion.

Preparatory attention after lesions to the lateral or orbital prefrontal cortex--an event-related potentials study

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a central role in preparatory and anticipatory attentional processes. To investigate whether subregions of the PFC play differential roles in these processes we investigated the effect of focal lesions to either lateral prefrontal (lateral PFC; n=11) or orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; n=13) on the contingent negative variation (CNV), an electrophysiological index of preparatory brain processes. The CNV was studied using a Go/NoGo delayed response task where an auditory S1 signaled whether or not an upcoming visual S2 was a Go or a NoGo stimulus. Neither early (500-1000 ms) nor late (3200-3700 ms) phase Go trial CNV amplitude was reduced for any of the patient groups in comparison to controls. However, the lateral PFC group showed enhanced Go trial early CNV and reduced late CNV Go/NoGo differentiation. These data suggests that normal orienting and evaluation as reflected by the CNV is intact after OFC lesions. The enhanced early CNV after lateral PFC damage may be due to failure in inhibition and the reduced late CNV difference wave confirms a deficit in preparatory attention after damage to this frontal subregion.

Utility of independent component analysis for interpretation of intracranial EEG

Electrode arrays are sometimes implanted in the brains of patients with intractable epilepsy to better localize seizure foci before epilepsy surgery. Analysis of intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings is typically performed in the electrode channel domain without explicit separation of the sources that generate the signals. However, intracranial EEG signals, like scalp EEG signals, could be linear mixtures of local activity and volume-conducted activity arising in multiple source areas. Independent component analysis (ICA) has recently been applied to scalp EEG data, and shown to separate the signal mixtures into independently generated brain and non-brain source signals. Here, we applied ICA to unmix source signals from intracranial EEG recordings from four epilepsy patients during a visually cued finger movement task in the presence of background pathological brain activity. This ICA decomposition demonstrated that the iEEG recordings were not maximally independent, but rather are linear mixtures of activity from multiple sources. Many of the independent component (IC) projections to the iEEG recording grid were consistent with sources from single brain regions, including components exhibiting classic movement-related dynamics. Notably, the largest IC projection to each channel accounted for no more than 20–80% of the channel signal variance, implying that in general intracranial recordings cannot be accurately interpreted as recordings of independent brain sources. These results suggest that ICA can be used to identify and monitor major field sources of local and distributed functional networks generating iEEG data. ICA decomposition methods are useful for improving the fidelity of source signals of interest, likely including distinguishing the sources of pathological brain activity.

The effect of reconstructive vascular surgery on clinical status, quantitative EEG and cerebral blood flow in patients with cerebral ischaemia. A three month follow-up study in operated and unoperated stroke patients

Follow-up studies over a period of 3 months were carried out on 100 patients with a unilateral ischaemia in the territory of the middle cerebral artery. Twenty-six patients underwent an STA-MCA bypass operation and 23 patients, a carotid endarterectomy. Fifty-one unoperated patients served as a reference group. A clinical examination, quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) and cerebral blood flow study (CBF) were performed before, 2 weeks after and 3 months after surgery. In the unoperated patients these examinations were carried out shortly after admission, 3 weeks later and 3 months thereafter. In the unoperated group, a highly significant improvement of clinical score and qEEG was found, but there were no changes in CBF values. The bypass patients showed a transient deterioration of clinical score and qEEG after surgery. Further, over the 3 month post-operative period, the bypass patients and the endarterectomy patients showed no improvement in CBF and qEEG. Thus, a beneficial effect of reconstructive surgery over the period studied could not be demonstrated.