Evoked potentials in final epoch of self-initiated hand movement: A study in patients with depth electrodes.

Comparison between the intended and performed motor action can be expected to occur in the final epoch of a voluntary movement. In search for electrophysiological correlates of this mental process the purpose of the current study was to identify intracerebral sites activated in final epoch of self-paced voluntary movement. Intracerebral EEG was recorded from 235 brain regions of 42 epileptic patients who performed self-paced voluntary movement task. Evoked potentials starting at 0 to 243ms after the peak of averaged, rectified electromyogram were identified in 21 regions of 13 subjects. The mean amplitude value of these late movement potentials (LMP) was 56.4±27.5µV. LMPs were observed in remote regions of mesiotemporal structures, cingulate, frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices. Closely before the LMP onset, a significant increase of phase synchronization was observed in all EEG record pairs in 9 of 10 examined subjects; p<0.001, Mann-Whitney U test. In conclusion, mesiotemporal structures, cingulate, frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices seem to represent integral functionally linked parts of network activated in final epoch of self-paced voluntary movement. Activation of this large-scale neuronal network was suggested to reflect a comparison process between the intended and actually performed motor action. Our results contribute to better understanding of neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed behavior crucial for creation of agentive experience.

Post-movement processing in visual oddball task - Evidence from intracerebral recording.

OBJECTIVE: To identify intracerebral sites activated after correct motor response during cognitive task and to assess associations of this activity with mental processes. METHODS: Intracerebral EEG was recorded from 205 sites of frontal, temporal and parietal lobes in 18 epileptic patients, who responded by button pressing together with mental counting to target stimuli in visual oddball task. RESULTS: Post-movement event-related potentials (ERPs) with mean latency 295 ± 184 ms after movement were found in all subjects in 64% of sites investigated. Generators were consistently observed in mesiotemporal structures, anterior midcingulate, prefrontal, and temporal cortices. Task-variant nonspecific and target specific post-movement ERPs were identified, displaying no significant differences in distribution among generating structures. Both after correct and incorrect performances the post-performance ERPs were observed in frontal and temporal cortices with latency sensitive to error commission in several frontal regions. CONCLUSION: Mesiotemporal structures and regions in anterior midcingulate, prefrontal and temporal cortices seem to represent integral parts of network activated after correct motor response in visual oddball task with mental counting. Our results imply equivalent involvement of these structures in task-variant nonspecific and target specific processes, and suggest existence of common nodes for correct and incorrect responses. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results contribute to better understanding of neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed behavior.

The primary motor cortex is involved in the control of a non-motor cognitive action.

OBJECTIVE: Adaptive interactions with the outer world necessitate effective connections between cognitive and executive functions. The primary motor cortex (M1) with its control of the spinal cord motor apparatus and its involvement in the processing of cognitive information related to motor functions is one of the best suited structures of this cognition-action connection. The question arose whether M1 might be involved also in situations where no overt or covered motor action is present. METHODS: The EEG data analyzed were recorded during an oddball task in one epileptic patient (19 years) with depth multilead electrodes implanted for diagnostic reasons into the M1 and several prefrontal areas. RESULTS: The main result was the finding of an evoked response to non-target stimuli with a pronounced late component in all frontal areas explored, including three loci of the M1. The late component was implicated in the evaluation of predicted and actual action and was synchronized in all three precentral loci and in the majority of prefrontal loci. CONCLUSION: The finding is considered as direct evidence of functional involvement of the M1 in cognitive activity not related to motor function. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results contribute to better understanding of neural mechanisms underlying cognition.

Preictal dynamics of EEG complexity in intracranially recorded epileptic seizure: a case report.

Recent findings suggest that neural complexity reflecting a number of independent processes in the brain may characterize typical changes during epileptic seizures and may enable to describe preictal dynamics. With respect to previously reported findings suggesting specific changes in neural complexity during preictal period, we have used measure of pointwise correlation dimension (PD2) as a sensitive indicator of nonstationary changes in complexity of the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. Although this measure of complexity in epileptic patients was previously reported by Feucht et al (Applications of correlation dimension and pointwise dimension for non-linear topographical analysis of focal onset seizures. Med Biol Comput. 1999;37:208-217), it was not used to study changes in preictal dynamics. With this aim to study preictal changes of EEG complexity, we have examined signals from 11 multicontact depth (intracerebral) EEG electrodes located in 108 cortical and subcortical brain sites, and from 3 scalp EEG electrodes in a patient with intractable epilepsy, who underwent preoperative evaluation before epilepsy surgery. From those 108 EEG contacts, records related to 44 electrode contacts implanted into lesional structures and white matter were not included into the experimental analysis.The results show that in comparison to interictal period (at about 8-6 minutes before seizure onset), there was a statistically significant decrease in PD2 complexity in the preictal period at about 2 minutes before seizure onset in all 64 intracranial channels localized in various brain sites that were included into the analysis and in 3 scalp EEG channels as well. Presented results suggest that using PD2 in EEG analysis may have significant implications for research of preictal dynamics and prediction of epileptic seizures.

Hippocampal negative event-related potential recorded in humans during a simple sensorimotor task occurs independently of motor execution.

A hippocampal-prominent event-related potential (ERP) with a peak latency at around 450 ms is consistently observed as a correlate of hippocampal activity during various cognitive tasks. Some intracranial EEG studies demonstrated that the amplitude of this hippocampal potential was greater in response to stimuli requiring an overt motor response, in comparison with stimuli for which no motor response is required. These findings could indicate that hippocampal-evoked activity is related to movement execution as well as stimulus evaluation and associated memory processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the temporal relationship between the hippocampal negative potential latency and motor responses. We analyzed ERPs recorded with 22 depth electrodes implanted into the hippocampi of 11 epileptic patients. Subjects were instructed to press a button after the presentation of a tone. All investigated hippocampi generated a prominent negative ERP peaking at ~420 ms. In 16 from 22 cases, we found that the ERP latency did not correlate with the reaction time; in different subjects, this potential could either precede or follow the motor response. Our results indicate that the hippocampal negative ERP occurs independently of motor execution. We suggest that hippocampal-evoked activity, recorded in a simple sensorimotor task, is related to the evaluation of stimulus meaning within the context of situation.

Intracerebral recordings of the Bereitschaftspotential demonstrate the heterogeneity of its components.

Though consisting of early and late components, the evoked potential preceding a voluntary movement (Bereitschaftspotential - BP) is often considered as a unitary phenomenon. By analyzing intracerebrally recorded BP we attempted to demonstrate that the components are electrophysiological correlates of separate operations. The BPs recorded in 42 epilepsy surgery candidates (28 men, 14 women; aged from 18 to 49 years) during self-paced clenching movements of the hand opposite to the explored hemisphere were investigated in the study. Microdeep intracerebral 5 to 15-contact electrodes were used. The averaged curves were calculated from approximately 30 trials in each case. All the records were taken with a binaural reference. The total number of explored brain regions was 235; the event-related premovement potentials were observed in 121 of them. Three types of premovement responses were observed: (i) the BP with both components; (ii) the BP with the early component only; and (iii) the BP with the late component only. The generators of the early one-component BP were demonstrated in two frontal cortical areas (precentral and middle frontal gyri) and in the parietal area known to be involved in action planning and decision making (precuneus). Some structures generating the early one-component BP were activated during movement; the others were without motor responsiveness. The results suggest a separate elaboration of functional task items in some and their integration in other brain structures, and the existence of volitional mechanisms of different hierarchical character.

Electrodermal complexity during the Stroop colour word test.

Several recent studies suggest that quantitative description of signal complexity using algorithms of nonlinear analysis could uncover new information about the autonomic system that is not reflected using common methods applied to measures of autonomic activity. With this aim we have performed complexity analysis of electrodermal activity (EDA) assessed in 106 healthy university students during rest conditions and non-conflicting and conflicting Stroop task. Complexity analysis applied to EDA was performed using Skinner's algorithm for pointwise correlation dimension (PD2). Results have shown that EDA responses during the Stroop Colour Word test are related to significantly increased or decreased complexity. Particularly significant result is that PD2 has a unique ability to predict to an extent the change in EDA response to stress i.e. that subjects with low initial PD2 tended to respond to experimental stress by its increase and subjects with high initial PD2 values tended to respond by its decrease. This response was not found in EDA measures where increase of the EDA presented predominant response to experimental stress in majority of the subjects. These findings suggest that PD2 is more sensitive to subtle aspects of functionally and spatially distributed modulatory influences of various parts of the brain that are involved in the EDA modulation and provides novel information in comparison to traditional methods.

Intracerebral P3-like waveforms and the length of the stimulus-response interval in a visual oddball paradigm.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the possible linkage of intracerebrally recorded P3-like waveforms to the processes induced by stimulus perception or motor response formation. METHODS: Event-related potentials were recorded from 560 cerebral sites in 17 patients suffering from intractable epilepsy during visual oddball task. Potentials evoked by the target stimuli were sorted according to button-pressing response times, and the P3 waveform was analyzed both in stimulus-locked and response-locked averages, which were separately averaged for fast and slow responses. RESULTS: P3-like waveforms were identified in 180 sites in 17 patients. Three different types of P3-like waveforms, diffusely distributed within the brain, were found: (1) time-locked to the stimulus (30 sites in 11 patients); (2) time-locked to the motor response (52 sites in 13 patients); and (3) with ambiguous time relationship to stimulus and motor response (98 sites in 16 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The intracerebral P3-like waveform could represent different processes involved in performing active oddball tasks. Therefore, our results support the hypothesis that the P3 waveform registered by surface electrodes could be a heterogeneous phenomenon. SIGNIFICANCE: These results provide evidence that the P3 waveform is not only related to stimulus processing, which differs from what has been generally claimed in the literature.

The effect of apomorphine administration on smooth pursuit ocular movements in early Parkinsonian patients.

Electrooculography (EOG) recordings in 21 L-DOPA-naive patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) were made before and after apomorphine subcutaneous administration (ASA). The effect of apomorphine on smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) was studied. Age-matched healthy subjects, who underwent SPEM recordings without the ASA procedure, were examined in order to compare baseline SPEM. EOG recordings were used to compare the patient group and the control group, and to compare the SPEM before and after ASA within the patient group. Significant differences in SPEM were found between both groups, as well as in the SPEM before and after ASA. The theory that SPEM is disturbed in early PD patients was confirmed. The dopaminergic control of horizontal SPEM is supposed.