Human Intracranial Electrophysiology
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Summary
This study will enroll patients with epilepsy who are being evaluated for epilepsy surgery and have electrodes implanted in the brain and/or have electrodes on the scalp. Additionally, this study will recruit normal and online controls (participants who do not have epilepsy). Participants will be asked to participate in 1 to 2 (30-90 minutes) daily sessions designed to test aspects of human cognition such as memory, speech, language, feeling, movement, attention, sound perception, and emotions. Generally, this will involve working on a computer, looking at pictures or watching videos, and answering questions. Additionally, participants may be asked to be hooked up to additional equipment such as eye tracker, electrical stimulator, heart rate monitor, sweat monitor or other non-invasive equipment. The overall aim of this study is to use human intracranial electrophysiology (the recording of the electrical activity of the human brain) to study localization and function of the human brain.
Description
This project aims to study the mechanisms of brain function by using Human Intracranial Electrophysiology (HIE) methods and is a continuation of the "Localization of Human Brain Function" study done at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). HIE refers to the recording of brain signals using electrodes which are surgically inserted into the human brain for the clinical purpose of localizing the origins of epileptic seizures. Secondary to clinical goals, such patients with intracranial EEG electrodes can be safely recruited to participate in research studies, i.e. the research "piggybacks"…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Patients with Intracranial EEG: Inclusion Criteria * Patients must be age 18 years or older. There is no upper age limit. * Patients must have a diagnosis of refractory epilepsy undergoing intracranial EEG recording for clinical purposes. Patients with Intracranial EEG: Exclusion Criteria * Patient has additional neurological condition (such as stroke or dementia) or a psychiatric condition (such as active psychosis or suicidal ideation) and are deemed inappropriate for the study * Patients are not able to provide informed consent for any reason (e.g. encephalopathic, experiencing a seizure…
Interventions
- OtherMemory Tasks
Participants will be asked to view pictures and videos presented on a computer screen and will be asked to recall the details of presented pictures or videos sometime later.
- OtherAttention/arousal tasks
Participants will be asked to perform a continuous performance task, such as continuous addition of numbers. Additionally, participants may be presented with images and may be asked to rate the significance or arousal values for each image.
- OtherLanguage tasks
Participants will be asked to view pictures of actions or things and will be asked to name them. Participants may also be asked to read words or passages.
- OtherVisuospatial tasks
Participants will be asked to copy 3 dimensional designs or make judgements of angle size.
- OtherAuditory Tasks
Participants will be presented with short, approximately 8-minute clips of music from various genres ( i.e. classical, country, rock, etc.) with an attention task (modified sustained attention to response task) nested within each trial. Participants will receive approximately 8 music stimuli and 1 control stimulus (pink noise) twice over the course of two testing sessions ( 90 mins each). Additionally, participants will be asked to answer questions about their hearing, music preferences/training, and certain demographic information (age, handedness, and language proficiency).
Location
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterLebanon, New Hampshire