Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience Systems Neuroscience

Abstract

Since the pioneering works of Penfield and Jasper (1954) performed during surgical interventions, it is also well known that direct electrical stimulation (DES) of cortical regions and axonal tracts allows a number of very specific perceptual or behavioral responses to be obtained. Despite the development of neuroimag-ing techniques, DES remains the gold standard for mapping brain functions, particularly regarding functional specialization whereas some interrogations remain when assessing functional integration (Mandonnet et al., 2010). For instance, DES of language areas performed during tumor resection induces very specific speech disturbances in awake patients (Duffau et al., 2008). Similarly, using subdural and/or depth electrodes implanted in epileptic patients for presurgical evaluations, various sensations, or behavioral effects elicited by DES have been reported (see below Section " Functional Mapping of the Eloquent Cortex Using DES "). In addition to these functional studies, several teams have used DES either to estimate These epileptic events induced by DES are likely to occur because epileptogenic networks may be particularly prone to short-term plasticity of synaptic weights induced by DES, at least in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (Wilson et al., 1998; David et al., 2008).