title: Performing behavioral tasks in subjects with intracranial electrodes.
abstract: Patients having stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) electrode, subdural grid or depth electrode implants have a multitude of electrodes implanted in different areas of their brain for the localization of their seizure focus and eloquent areas. After implantation, the patient must remain in the hospital until the pathological area of brain is found and possibly resected. During this time, these patients offer a unique opportunity to the research community because any number of behavioral paradigms can be performed to uncover the neural correlates that guide behavior. Here we present a method for recording brain activity from intracranial implants as subjects perform a behavioral task designed to assess decision-making and reward encoding. All electrophysiological data from the intracranial electrodes are recorded during the behavioral task, allowing for the examination of the many brain areas involved in a single function at time scales relevant to behavior. Moreover, and unlike animal studies, human patients can learn a wide variety of behavioral tasks quickly, allowing for the ability to perform more than one task in the same subject or for performing controls. Despite the many advantages of this technique for understanding human brain function, there are also methodological limitations that we discuss, including environmental factors, analgesic effects, time constraints and recordings from diseased tissue. This method may be easily implemented by any institution that performs intracranial assessments; providing the opportunity to directly examine human brain function during behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Epilepsy Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Martinez
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Hyun-Joo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Epilepsy Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bulacio
authors.affiliation: Epilepsy Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
authors.forename: Imad
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Najm
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Sridevi V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Sarma
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; Department of Neurosciences and Center for Neurological Restoration, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; galej@ccf.org.
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Gale
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans