A measure of cortico-cortical potentials evoked by 10Hz direct electrical stimulation of the brain and by means of a differential recording mode of electrocorticographic signals

Direct electrical stimulation (DES) at 60 Hz is used to perform real-time functional mapping of the brain during wide-awake neurosurgery. The electrophysiological effects of DES are largely unknown, locally and at a more remote distance. Here, by lowering the DES frequency to 10 Hz and by using a differential recording mode of electro-corticographic (ECoG) signals to improve the focality, we were able to record cortico-cortical evoked potentials easily with standard current amplitude of stimulation (2 mA). DES applied at 10 Hz and differential recording of ECoG could be used to map on-line the connectivity between different sub-cortical and cortical areas with a higher spatial accuracy.