Hippocampal barques and their manifestation as 14&6 Hz positive spikes during sleep.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates variations in hippocampal barque occurrence during sleep and compares findings to respective variations of their scalp manifestation as 14&6/sec positive spikes. METHODS: From 11 epilepsy patients, 12 non-epileptogenic hippocampi with barques were identified for this study. Using the first seizure-free whole-night sleep stereo-encephalography (sEEG) recording, we performed sleep staging and measured the occurrence of barques and 14&6/sec positive spikes variants. RESULTS: Hippocampal barques (total count: 9,183; mean count per record: 765.2 ± 251.2) occurred predominantly during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) II sleep (total: 5,744; mean: 478.6 ± 176.1; 62.2 ± 6.0%) and slow-wave sleep (SWS) (total: 2,950; mean: 245.83 ± 92.9; 32.0 ± 6.2%), with rare to occasional occurrence in NREM I (total: 85; mean: 7.0 ± 2.8; 0.9 ± 0.4%), rapid eye movement (REM) (total: 153; mean: 12.75 ± 4.0; 1.7 ± 0.6) and wakefulness (total: 251; mean: 20.9 ± 6.3; 2.9 ± 0.9%). Barque rate increased during SWS (mean: 2.7 ± 1.0 per min) compared to NREM II (2.2 ± 1.0 per min) and other states (wakefulness: 0.1 ± 0.0 per min; NREM I: 0.3 ± 0.1 per min; REM: 0.1 ± 0.0 per min). The 14&6/sec positive spikes variant (total count: 2,406; mean: 343.7 ± 106.7) was present in NREM II (total: 2,059; mean: 249.1 ± 100.2, 84.9 ± 3.6%) and SWS (total: 347; mean: 49.5 ± 12.8, 15.0 ± 3.6%) stages, and absent from the rest of sleep and wakefulness. While all 14&6/sec positive spikes correlated with barques, only 44.7 ± 6.1% of barques manifested as 14&6/sec positive spikes. CONCLUSIONS: Hippocampal barques are predominant in NREM II and SWS, and tend to increase their presence during SWS. Their scalp manifestation as 14&6/sec positive spikes is confounded by wakefulness, REM and NREM I stages, and "masked" by the co-occurrence of NREM II and SWS slow waves, and overlapping reactive micro-arousal elements. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study highlighted the overnight profile of hippocampal barques, in relation to the respective profile of their scalp manifestation, the 14&6/sec positive spikes variant.

Modified Neuropixels probes for recording human neurophysiology in the operating room.

Neuropixels are silicon-based electrophysiology-recording probes with high channel count and recording-site density. These probes offer a turnkey platform for measuring neural activity with single-cell resolution and at a scale that is beyond the capabilities of current clinically approved devices. Our team demonstrated the first-in-human use of these probes during resection surgery for epilepsy or tumors and deep brain stimulation electrode placement in patients with Parkinson's disease. Here, we provide a better understanding of the capabilities and challenges of using Neuropixels as a research tool to study human neurophysiology, with the hope that this information may inform future efforts toward regulatory approval of Neuropixels probes as research devices. In perioperative procedures, the major concerns are the initial sterility of the device, maintaining a sterile field during surgery, having multiple referencing and grounding schemes available to de-noise recordings (if necessary), protecting the silicon probe from accidental contact before insertion and obtaining high-quality action potential and local field potential recordings. The research team ensures that the device is fully operational while coordinating with the surgical team to remove sources of electrical noise that could otherwise substantially affect the signals recorded by the sensitive hardware. Prior preparation using the equipment and training in human clinical research and working in operating rooms maximize effective communication within and between the teams, ensuring high recording quality and minimizing the time added to the surgery. The perioperative procedure requires ~4 h, and the entire protocol requires multiple weeks.

A supervised data-driven spatial filter denoising method for speech artifacts in intracranial electrophysiological recordings.

Neurosurgical procedures that enable direct brain recordings in awake patients offer unique opportunities to explore the neurophysiology of human speech. The scarcity of these opportunities and the altruism of participating patients compel us to apply the highest rigor to signal analysis. Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) signals recorded during overt speech can contain a speech artifact that tracks the fundamental frequency (F0) of the participant's voice, involving the same high-gamma frequencies that are modulated during speech production and perception. To address this artifact, we developed a spatial-filtering approach to identify and remove acoustic-induced contaminations of the recorded signal. We found that traditional reference schemes jeopardized signal quality, whereas our data-driven method denoised the recordings while preserving underlying neural activity.

Human visual consciousness involves large scale cortical and subcortical networks independent of task report and eye movement activity.

The full neural circuits of conscious perception remain unknown. Using a visual perception task, we directly recorded a subcortical thalamic awareness potential (TAP). We also developed a unique paradigm to classify perceived versus not perceived stimuli using eye measurements to remove confounding signals related to reporting on conscious experiences. Using fMRI, we discovered three major brain networks driving conscious visual perception independent of report: first, increases in signal detection regions in visual, fusiform cortex, and frontal eye fields; and in arousal/salience networks involving midbrain, thalamus, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, and anterior insula; second, increases in frontoparietal attention and executive control networks and in the cerebellum; finally, decreases in the default mode network. These results were largely maintained after excluding eye movement-based fMRI changes. Our findings provide evidence that the neurophysiology of consciousness is complex even without overt report, involving multiple cortical and subcortical networks overlapping in space and time.

Barques are generated in posterior hippocampus and phase reverse over lateral posterior hippocampal surface.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether barques can be localized across the hippocampal longitudinal axis with sufficient specificity. METHODS: We identified 51 focal epilepsy patients implanted with a minimum of two electrodes - unilateral anterior and posterior - in either hippocampus. We used visual inspection of the intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) and 3D brain volume spectrum-based statistical parametric mapping (SPM) to localize barques. RESULTS: In 18/51 patients (35.29%), barques were identified in 22/70 (31.42%) hippocampi. In all hippocampi (100%), barques were present in the posterior hippocampus, while 9 (40.90%) showed concurrent non-independent barque activity anteriorly (P < 0.0001). Statistical parametric mapping confirmed the posterior barque localization, with significant differences in t-values (t(27) = 8.08, P < 0.0001) and z-scores (t(24) = 6.85, P < 0.0001) between anterior and posterior hippocampal barque activity. Posterior lateral extrahippocampal contacts demonstrated phase reversals of positive polarity during barque activity (P = 0.0092, compared to anterior extrahippocampal contacts). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the posterior hippocampal predominance of barques. Our findings are concordant with the posterior distribution of the scalp manifestation of barques as "14&6/sec positive spikes". The posterio-lateral hippocampal barque phase reversal can explain the positive polarity of scalp 14&6/sec spikes. SIGNIFICANCE: Understanding the properties of barques is critical for the iEEG interpretation in epilepsy surgery evaluations that include the hippocampus.

The intracranial correlate of the 14&6/sec positive spikes normal scalp EEG variant.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the intracranial correlate of the 14&6/sec positive spikes normal variant of scalp EEG. METHODS: Out of 35 adult refractory focal epilepsy patients who underwent intracranial electrode implantation with simultaneous scalp EEG electrodes, the 14&6/sec positive spikes variant was found in 4. We used three methods to identify and quantify intracranial correlates to the variant: visual inspection, time-referenced waveform averaging and 3D brain volume spectrum-based statistical parametric mapping (SPM). RESULTS: We discovered a novel and robust relationship between the scalp variant and an atypical hippocampal discharge. This intracranial correlate is an ipsilateral hippocampal burst of highly synchronized high-amplitude paroxysmal-like spikes of negative polarity, with a ramping up amplitude profile, which often ramps down and is accompanied by an underlying sequence of low-amplitude negative slow waves. The 14/sec positive spikes of the variant are time-locked to the negative peak of the hippocampal spikes, while the 6/sec positive spikes are time-locked to the negative spikes overlying the low-amplitude slow waves. CONCLUSIONS: The 14&6/sec positive spikes variant correlates with bursts of negative polarity spikes in the ipsilateral hippocampus. SIGNIFICANCE: The identification of the hippocampal correlate of the 14&6/sec positive spikes variant fills a gap in our knowledge of normal intracranial variants. In clinical practice, this knowledge should reduce the chance that this electrophysiological signature is misinterpreted as epileptiform activity, which could inappropriately influence the interpretation of the intracranial study and subsequent surgical recommendation.