Understanding entangled cerebral networks: a prerequisite for restoring brain function with brain-computer interfaces.
Historically, cerebral processing has been conceptualized as a framework based on statically localized functions. However, a growing amount of evidence supports a hodotopical (delocalized) and flexible organization. A number of studies have reported absence of a permanent neurological deficit after massive surgical resections of eloquent brain tissue. These results highlight the tremendous plastic potential of the brain. Understanding anatomo-functional correlates underlying this cerebral reorganization is a prerequisite to restore brain functions through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in patients with cerebral diseases, or even to potentiate brain functions in healthy individuals. Here, we review current knowledge of neural networks that could be utilized in the BCIs that enable movements and language. To this end, intraoperative electrical stimulation in awake patients provides valuable information on the cerebral functional maps, their connectomics and plasticity. Overall, these studies indicate that the complex cerebral circuitry that underpins interactions between action, cognition and behavior should be throughly investigated before progress in BCI approaches can be achieved.
Department of Neurosurgery, Hôpital Lariboisière Paris, France ; Department of Neurosurgery, Université Paris Diderot Paris, France ; IMNC, UMR 8165 Orsay, France.
Emmanuel
E
Mandonnet
Department of Neurosurgery, Gui de Chauliac Hospital, Montpellier University Medical Center Montpellier, France ; Team "Plasticity of Central Nervous System, Stem Cells and Glial Tumors," INSERM U1051, Institute for Neuroscience of Montpellier, Montpellier University Medical Center Montpellier, France.
Hugues
H
Duffau
anatomo-functional connectivity; brain networks; brain-computer interface; functional restoration; language; movement