Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Protoc. 2013 May;8(5):949-57. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2013.050. Epub 2013 Apr 18.
Single-neuronal studies remain the gold standard for studying brain function. Here we describe a protocol for studying task-related single-neuronal activity in human subjects during neurosurgical procedures involving microelectrode recordings. This protocol has two phases: a preoperative phase and an intraoperative phase. During the preoperative phase, we discuss informed consent, equipment setup and behavioral testing. During the intraoperative phase, we discuss the procedure for microelectrode recordings. Because patients are often awake during these procedures, this protocol can be performed in conjunction with behavioral tasks for studying a variety of cognitive functions. We describe the protocol in detail and provide two examples of expected results. In addition, we discuss the potential difficulties and pitfalls related to intraoperative studies. This protocol takes ∼1.5 h to complete.
单细胞研究仍然是研究大脑功能的金标准。在这里，我们描述了一种在涉及微电极记录的神经外科手术过程中研究人类受试者与任务相关的单细胞活动的方案。该方案有两个阶段：术前阶段和术中阶段。在术前阶段，我们讨论知情同意、设备设置和行为测试。在术中阶段，我们讨论微电极记录的过程。由于患者在这些过程中经常保持清醒，因此该方案可以与行为任务结合使用，以研究各种认知功能。我们详细描述了该方案，并提供了两个预期结果的示例。此外，我们还讨论了与术中研究相关的潜在困难和陷阱。该方案大约需要 1.5 小时才能完成。
