title: Right-lateralized brain oscillations in human spatial navigation.
abstract: During spatial navigation, lesion and functional imaging studies suggest that the right hemisphere has a unique functional role. However, studies of direct human brain recordings have not reported interhemisphere differences in navigation-related oscillatory activity. We investigated this apparent discrepancy using intracranial electroencephalographic recordings from 24 neurosurgical patients playing a virtual taxi driver game. When patients were virtually moving in the game, brain oscillations at various frequencies increased in amplitude compared with periods of virtual stillness. Using log-linear analysis, we analyzed the region and frequency specificities of this pattern and found that neocortical movement-related gamma oscillations (34-54 Hz) were significantly lateralized to the right hemisphere, especially in posterior neocortex. We also observed a similar right lateralization of gamma oscillations related to searching for objects at unknown virtual locations. Thus, our results indicate that gamma oscillations in the right neocortex play a special role in human spatial navigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Igor O
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Korolev
authors.forename: Jeremy B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Caplan
authors.forename: Arne D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Ekstrom
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Litt
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baltuch
authors.forename: Itzhak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fried
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schulze-Bonhage
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kahana
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D019579:Neocortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult