Electroencephalography.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) was invented almost 100 years ago and is still a method of choice for many research questions, even applications-from functional brain imaging in neuroscientific investigations during movement to real-time applications like brain-computer interfacing. This chapter gives some background information on the establishment and properties of the EEG. This chapter starts with a closer look at the sources of EEG at a micro or neuronal level, followed by recording techniques, types of electrodes, and common EEG artifacts. Then an overview on EEG phenomena, namely, spontaneous EEG and event-related potentials build the middle part of this chapter. The last part discusses brain signals, which are used in current BCI research, including short descriptions and examples of applications.

The Ascending Reticular Activating System.

Discovery of the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) can be attributed to work done in research neuroscientist Horace Magoun's laboratory. Before this finding, most scientists would focus on the diencephalon (and anterior midbrain) but not more caudally. Stimulation of the medial bulbar reticular formation in the pontine and midbrain tegmentum resulted disappearance of synchronized discharge and low-voltage fast activity. The effects were mediated by a thalamic projection system. This finding was a dramatic departure from the early philosophers' ascription of the awake soul to the ventricles (Galen), lumbosacral cord (Plato), pineal gland (Descartes), and even from more modern nineteenth- and twentieth-century hypotheses that the corpus striatum or periaqueductal gray matter housed the "seat of awareness." Magoun and his collaborators closed in on its true location in the cephalic brainstem-clinicians and neuropathologists would soon follow.

The history of physiology: the chair of physiology at the faculty of medicine of the Jagiellonian University 1918 - 1939.

Modern research in Polish physiology began on a larger scale in the second half of the nineteenth century. The academic city of Cracow and the professors of physiology employed at the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University played a pivotal role. Among the most eminent were Gustaw Piotrowski (1833 - 1884) and his outstanding successor in the Chair of Physiology - Napoleon Cybulski (1854 - 1919) who was a world-class researcher and a pioneer in the field of electroencephalography and endocrinology. In the following years the Chair was headed by Ernest Maydell (1878 - 1930) and Jerzy Kaulbersz (1891 - 1986). Kaulbersz's achievements were particularly important. A large part of his work concerned physiology of digestion and research into changes in the human body in alpine conditions. Kaulbersz remained in the Chair of Physiology of the Jagiellonian University after World War II.

Epilepsy and Neurosurgery: Historical Highlights.

Epilepsy has been known since antiquity and trepanation has been documented as a therapeutic option. The Greek born physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia (2nd century BC) was the first to recommend trepanation for the treatment of refractory epilepsy to drugs, pointing out the efficacy of the method (Fig. 1). Trepanation was practiced throughout the Middle Ages, as it is proved by the book of "Quattuor Magistri" and during Renaissance as well. In 19th century, Sir Victor Alexander Horsley (1857-1916), combining analysis of clinical presentation with cortical stimulation, performed a series of craniotomies for the treatment of epilepsy Fig. 2. In the following years the advent of electrophysiology and neurosurgery provided a fertile ground for further progress in epilepsy surgery such as the preoperative use of electroencephalography (EEG) to determine the epileptogenic zone by Otfrid Foerster (1873-1941); the research of Wilder Graves Penfield (1891-1976) in Montreal Neurological Institute and the use of stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) by the neurosurgeon Jean Talairach (1911-2007) and the neurologist Jean Bancaud (1921-1994)) Fig. 3. Nowadays, epilepsy surgery remains a valuable therapeutic option in cases of drug resistant epilepsy.

The intentional brain--a short history of neuropsychiatry.

Neuropsychiatry has had different meanings at different times in the history of clinical neuroscience. In this article, the origins of what has become today's neuropsychiatry are briefly explored, hopefully revealing a number of pioneers of the discipline, some of the names being familiar to many readers, others however being less recognized or even unknown to those who today would wish to carry the moniker of a neuropsychiatrist. It explores the rise of what I refer to as modern or today's neuropsychiatry, and empathizes a phenomenological approach to clinical understanding, and the fact that neuropsychiatry it is a discipline in its own right and not just a wing of psychiatry or a bridge between neurology and psychiatry.

Los pacientes del manicomio La Castañeda y sus diagnósticos. Una propuesta desde la historia cuantitativa (México, 1910-1968) / The patients and their diagnosis at La Castañeda General Asylum. An approach from quantitative history (México, 1910-1968)

El Manicomio General La Castañeda, fundado en la Ciudad de México, albergó a 61.480 pacientes entre 1910 y 1968. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar un panorama general de la población que ingresó a esta institución y los diagnósticos que recibieron los internos, análisis realizado a partir de una base de datos construida con una muestra de 20% de la población total. El artículo se divide en tres partes: en la primera, proponemos tres etapas para comprender la historia de La Castañeda cuya periodización es definida por cambios demográficos que coinciden con reformas administrativas; en la segunda, exponemos las características generales de la población psiquiátrica de La Castañeda; y finalmente, describimos los principales cambios demográficos, los cuales obedecieron a factores socio-políticos, innovaciones tecnológicas y transformaciones en la clínica. Como características principales de la población de La Castañeda tenemos la brevedad del encierro (18 meses en promedio) y la reducida mortalidad (23.8%) en comparación con otras instituciones del mismo tipo. En dicha circulación poblacional encontramos que las familias desempeñaron un papel determinante al asumir el cuidado de sus parientes locos. Así, el encierro prolongado de pacientes crónicos no fue un problema que aquejara al Manicomio General de forma tan severa como se ha creído (AU)

During its 58 years in operation (1910-1968), the Manicomio General La Castañeda housed 61,480 people. In this paper, we present an overview of the general characteristic of the patients based on a 20% sample of the overall population. We divided the text in three sections: in the first part we argue that the history of the institution comprises three distinctive periods characterized by demographic changes that coincide with administrative reforms. In the second, we present the general characteristics of La Castañeda's psychiatric population. Finally, we describe the most salient demographic changes, which stemmed either from socio-political events, technological innovations or clinical transformations. Some of the most salient results of the analysis of the sample show that the inmate population had short periods of hospitalization in the asylum (an average of 18 month), as well as a lower mortality rate (24.2%) in comparison to contemporary mental institutions. Families played a fundamental role in the care of their mad relatives, which accounts for the relatively short periods of hospitalization as well as the low death rates. Consequently, for this particular institution, chronic patients weren't such a serious problem as believed (AU)

Neurociencia cognitiva aplicada / Applied cognitive neuroscience

No disponible

The history of invasive EEG evaluation in epilepsy patients.

Modern invasive EEG recording techniques are the result of an interdisciplinary research process between neurologists and neurosurgeons that began in the 19th century. In the beginning, stimulation studies were the basis of our understanding of cortical functions. After the introduction of EEG in humans by Hans Berger and its implementation in diagnostic procedures in epilepsy patients, a new era began when Forster and Altenburger performed the first invasive EEG recording five years later. The fruitful work of Wilder Penfield and Herbert Jasper was the basis of a new understanding of epilepsy and influenced the investigations of the next generation of researchers. The development of stereotactic devices advanced by Jean Talairach and Jean Bancaud was fundamental to the understanding of deep brain functions and pathophysiological processes in epilepsy patients. In subsequent decades, new recording techniques were established and long-term video-EEG-recordings became the gold standard in presurgical evaluation. The development of imaging techniques allowed a combination of structural and electrophysiological data and restricted the indications for invasive evaluations, but also led to new concepts in the diagnostic process, including the epileptogenic network and the pathophysiological understanding of epileptogenic tissue. The following article provides an overview of the history of invasive EEG evaluation in epilepsy from the 19th century until today.

The evolution of endovascular electroencephalography: historical perspective and future applications.

Current standard practice requires an invasive approach to the recording of electroencephalography (EEG) for epilepsy surgery, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). The development of endovascular techniques offers a minimally invasive route to recording EEG from deep brain structures. This historical perspective aims to describe the technical progress in endovascular EEG by reviewing the first endovascular recordings made using a wire electrode, which was followed by the development of nanowire and catheter recordings and, finally, the most recent progress in stent-electrode recordings. The technical progress in device technology over time and the development of the ability to record chronic intravenous EEG from electrode arrays is described. Future applications for the use of endovascular EEG in the preoperative and operative management of epilepsy surgery are then discussed, followed by the possibility of the technique's future application in minimally invasive operative approaches to DBS and BMI.

How we may think: Imaging and writing technologies across the history of the neurosciences.

In the neurosciences, two alternative regimes of visualization can be differentiated: anatomical preparations for morphological images and physiological studies for functional representations. Adapting a distinction proposed by Peter Galison, this duality of visualization regimes is analyzed here as the contrast between an imaging and a writing approach: the imaging approach, focusing on mimetic representations, preserving material and spatial relations, and the writing approach as used in physiological studies, retaining functional relations. After a dominance of morphological images gathering iconic representations of brains and architectural brain theories, the advent of electroencephalography advanced writing approaches with their indexical signs. Addressing the brain allegedly at its mode of operation, electroencephalography was conceived as recording the brain's intrinsic language, extending the writing approach to include symbolic signs. The availability of functional neuroimaging signaled an opportunity to overcome the duality of imaging and writing, but revived initially a phrenological conflation of form and function, suppressing the writing approach in relation to imaging. More sophisticated visualization modes, however, converted this reductionism to the ontological productivity of social neuroscience and recuperated the theorizing from the writing approach. In light of the ongoing instrumental mediations between brains, data and theories, the question of how we may think, once proposed by Vannevar Bush as a prospect of enhanced human-machine interaction, has become the state of affairs in the entanglements of instruments and organic worlds.

Meanings of Waves: Electroencephalography and Society in Mexico City, 1940-1950.

Argument This paper focuses on the uses of electroencephalograms (EEGs) in Mexico during their introductory decade from 1940 to 1950. Following Borck (2006), I argue that EEGs adapted to fit local circumstances and that this adjustment led to the consolidation of different ways of making science and the emergence of new objects of study and social types. I also maintain that the way EEGs were introduced into the institutional networks of Mexico entangled them in discussions about the objective and juridical definitions of social groups, thereby preempting concerns about their technical and epistemic limitations. This ultimately enabled the use of EEGs as normative machines and dispositifs. To this end, the paper follows the arrival of EEGs and the creation of institutional networks then analyzes the extent to which the styles of thinking behind the uses of EEGs and attempts to reify a notion of normal electrical brain behavior-particularly by applying EEGs to a community of Otomí Indians-correlated with the difficulties of defining the socio-anthropological notions that articulated legal and disciplinary projects of the time. Finally, it unveils the shortcomings of alternative attempts to define a brain model and to resist the production of ontological determinations.