Pål Gunnar Larsson

Anatomical registration of intracranial electrodes. Robust model-based localization and deformable smooth brain-shift compensation methods

Abstract:

Background: Intracranial electrodes are typically localized from post-implantation CT artifacts. Automatic algorithms localizing low signal-to-noise ratio artifacts and high-density electrode arrays are missing. Additionally, implantation of grids/strips introduces brain deformations, resulting in registration errors when fusing post- implantation CT and pre-implantation MR images. Brain-shift compensation methods project electrode coordinates to cortex, but either fail to produce smooth solutions or do not account for brain deformations. New methods: We first introduce GridFit, a model-based fitting approach that simultaneously localizes all electrodes’ CT artifacts in grids, strips, or depth arrays. Second, we present CEPA, a brain-shift compensation algorithm combining orthogonal-based projections, spring-mesh models, and spatial regularization constraints. Results: We tested GridFit on ~6000 simulated scenarios. The localization of CT artifacts showed robust performance under difficult scenarios, such as noise, overlaps, and high-density implants (<1 mm errors). Validation with data from 20 challenging patients showed 99% accurate localization of the electrodes (3160/3192). We tested CEPA brain-shift compensation with data from 15 patients. Projections accounted for simple mechanical deformation principles with <0.4 mm errors. The inter-electrode distances smoothly changed across neighbor electrodes, while changes in inter-electrode distances linearly increased with projection distance. Comparison with existing methods: GridFit succeeded in difficult scenarios that challenged available methods and outperformed visual localization by preserving the inter-electrode distance. CEPA registration errors were smaller than those obtained for well-established alternatives. Additionally, modeling resting-state high-frequency activity in five patients further supported CEPA.

Authors:

  • Alejandro Omar Blenkmann

  • Sabine Liliana Leske

  • Anaïs Llorens

  • Jack J. Lin

  • Edward F. Chang

  • Peter Brunner

  • Gerwin Schalk

  • Jugoslav Ivanovic

  • Pål Gunnar Larsson

  • Robert Thomas Knight

  • Tor Endestad

  • Anne-Kristin Solbakk

Date: 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110056

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Ramping dynamics and theta oscillations reflect dissociable signatures during rule-guided human behavior

abstract:

Contextual cues and prior evidence guide human goal-directed behavior. The neurophysiological mechanisms that implement contextual priors to guide subsequent actions in the human brain remain unclear. Using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), we demonstrate that increasing uncertainty introduces a shift from a purely oscillatory to a mixed processing regime with an additional ramping component. Oscillatory and ramping dynamics reflect dissociable signatures, which likely differentially contribute to the encoding and transfer of different cognitive variables in a cue-guided motor task. The results support the idea that prefrontal activity encodes rules and ensuing actions in distinct coding subspaces, while theta oscillations synchronize the prefrontal-motor network, possibly to guide action execution. Collectively, our results reveal how two key features of large-scale neural population activity, namely continuous ramping dynamics and oscillatory synchrony, jointly support rule-guided human behavior.

Authors:

  • Jan Weber

  • Anne-Kristin Solbakk

  • Alejandro O. Blenkmann

  • Anais Llorens

  • Ingrid Funderud

  • Sabine Leske

  • Pål Gunnar Larsson

  • Lugoslav Ivanovic

  • Robert T. Knight

  • Tor Endestad

  • Randolph F. Helfrich

Date: 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44571-7

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