Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Language Comprehension
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Summary
First, in a recording-only self-paced reading experiment, patients with epilepsy undergoing intracranial monitoring for clinical purposes will read or listen to sentences presented to them one word at time while the investigators simultaneously record neural activity through intracranial electrodes that are implanted for clinical purposes (see subject populations). At the end of the sentence, the subjects have to indicate how they comprehended the sentence by selecting which of several pictures matches the sentence they just read. Behavioral measures that the investigators record and analyze are their response times to advance to each next word in the sentence, and which picture they chose for each sentence. These behavioral measures are compared against the neural activity simultaneously recorded as they are made. Then, in a later session, the same participants will participate in a task-related stimulation experiment. This follows the exact same design as the recording-only reading experiment, the only difference is that on some trials, at controlled moments during the sentence presentation intracranial electrical stimulation is delivered through adjacent intracranial electrode contacts. The investigators will examine the effect of this stimulation on the subjects comprehension of the sentences measured by their behavior, and on the simultaneously recorded neural activity.
Description
All experiments and recordings will take place in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). All electrodes being used to gather data are in place through standard of care to treat the patient's epilepsy by monitoring neural activity to guide an upcoming respective surgery. In all experiments, neural activity will be recorded from the standard of care electrodes using either a high-fidelity, FDA-approved Neuralynx Atlas amplifier system (Bozeman, MT) or a standard-of-care recording system (Natus Quantum Recording System, Pleasanton, CA) that is used normally…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 18 and older * Undergoing standard of care stereo Electro Encephalogram (sEEG) or Electro-Corticogram (ECoG) monitoring * Able to competently perform control trials of the task Exclusion Criteria: * Age less than 18 years * Unable to competently perform control trials of the task
Interventions
- BehavioralSentence Type
Subjects read different types of sentences (object-relative, subject -relative and control sentences) to observe how that sentence affects their intracranially recorded neural activity.
- OtherDirect brain stimulation
On some trials the investigators will apply intracranial electrical current through the electrodes implanted in the participants and observe the effect this has on their behavior (which picture they choose at the end of the trial) and the effect this has on their neural activity that the investigators record simultaneously through-out the experiment.
Location
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham HospitalBirmingham, Alabama