This Major Instrumentation Grant supports the acquisition of a 512-channel integrated stimulation and recording system for human neurophysiology research at the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center (CEC). Each year, 50-80 patients at the CEC undergo intracranial electrode monitoring and surgical removal of brain tissue to treat medically refractory epilepsy. The surgery involves making a small craniotomy in the skull and implanting electrodes in the brain that are used (1) to monitor neurophysiological brain activity during seizures and (2) to stimulate different regions of brain to understand their importance for cognitive, sensory and motor tasks. With this information, clinicians make informed decisions on what regions of the brain can be safely removed to treat the patients' epilepsy, while sparing critical functions. Having patients with electrodes temporarily implanted in their brain enables the unique opportunity to study both human cognition and epilepsy in a manner that is not possible with non-invasive tools such as brain imaging. With rapid improvements in electrode technology, the number of electrodes in each implanted device continues to grow and offers researchers even more detailed information about brain function in normal cognition and disease. To maximize the information available from each electrode, it needs to be independently connected to a stimulation and recording system. At present, the clinical system at the CEC cannot support the total number of electrodes in both clinical and research devices, leading to compromises in the research data. Moreover, some newer electrode technologies are not compatible with the current system. Thus, valuable information is lost. This award will enable the CEC to purchase a piece of equipment that has the capacity to measure from and stimulate 512 isolated electrode channels, ensuring no information is lost and bearing the promise of a more detailed and complete understanding of brain function.
NYU has built an incredibly productive research program around the human intracranial electrode patient population. Research is broadly focused on understanding language, memory, sleep, and epilepsy in the human brain. While the clinical value of the research is clear, the work also provides insight into the "normal" functioning of the human brain and thus falls within the scope of NSF supported science. For example, scientists working with the CEC have been able to provide deep insight into questions such as how language is processed by the brain and how memories are formed and subsequently strengthened during sleep. The intracranial research program at the CEC is highly collaborative and involves partnerships with scientists and clinicians across NYU as well as at multiple research institutes around the country. Patients are engaged in sensory, cognitive, and motor tasks and researchers measure activity in the brain to understand the neural basis of cognition. This award will not only expand the amount of information researchers can measure from a single patient, but also enable them to stimulate and perturb the brain during task performance to uncover causal brain-behavior relationships previously inaccessible in humans. Moreover, the technical expertise and interests of the collaborative group of researchers working with the CEC span a wide range and include non-invasive neuroimaging in humans and novel electrode technologies in animals. The capability to compare many channels of human intracranial recording with cross-species electrophysiological recordings in animal models will expand capabilities for translational research and accelerate the pace at which medical technology develops in the lab and can be brought to the bedside to improve clinical care.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
