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Updated: Aug 14, 2025
Recording Human Electrocorticographic ECoG Signals for Neuroscientific Research and Real-time Functional Cortical Mapping
Published on: June 26, 2012
Passive functional mapping of receptive language cortex during general anesthesia using electrocorticography
Amin Nourmohammadi1, James R Swift1, Adriana de Pesters2
1National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA; Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, USA.
Objective:
To investigate the feasibility of passive functional mapping in the receptive language cortex during general anesthesia using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals.
Methods:
We used subdurally placed ECoG grids to record cortical responses to speech stimuli during awake and anesthesia conditions. We identified the cortical areas with significant responses to the stimuli using the spectro-temporal consistency of the brain signal in the broadband gamma (BBG) frequency band (70-170 Hz).
Results:
We found that ECoG BBG responses during general anesthesia effectively identify cortical regions associated with receptive language function. Our analyses demonstrated that the ability to identify receptive language cortex varies across different states and depths of anesthesia. We confirmed these results by comparing them to receptive language areas identified during the awake condition. Quantification of these results demonstrated an average sensitivity and specificity of passive language mapping during general anesthesia to be 49±7.7% and 100%, respectively.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate that mapping receptive language cortex in patients during general anesthesia is feasible.
Significance:
Our proposed protocol could greatly expand the population of patients that can benefit from passive language mapping techniques, and could eliminate the risks associated with electrocortical stimulation during an awake craniotomy.
