Whole-brain activity may better predict variations in stimulation responses
Brain stimulation can produce very different effects at different moments, even when the stimulus is delivered exactly the same way. A new study published in Brain Stimulation shows that the brain's ongoing activity before stimulation can predict much of this variability, offering a path toward more reliable neuromodulation therapies.
The brain's ongoing activity before electrical or magnetic stimulation can predict much of the variability in responses, according to a new study published in Brain Stimulation. Despite identical stimulation sites and parameters, brain reactions can diverge significantly from one trial to the next, hindering both research reproducibility and therapeutic reliability.
This study examined an EBRAINS-hosted dataset with simultaneous intracranial (SEEG) and scalp EEG recordings from 36 epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial electrical stimulation for seizure mapping. Across approximately 320 sessions and over 10,000 individual stimulations, researchers tested 125 measures of prestimulus brain activity, such as network synchronization, functional connectivity, and signal complexity.
The findings indicate that whole-brain activity patterns predict stimulation outcomes far better than localized recordings, with predictability being strongest when targeting sensorimotor and visual networks. Restricting stimulation to trials with specific prestimulus signatures reduced response variability by up to 24%, demonstrating that timing stimulation according to the brain's ongoing state could enhance the consistency and reliability of neuromodulation therapies.
This approach shows promise for both invasive and noninvasive clinical applications, as predictors emerged from both intracranial and scalp EEG recordings. Open datasets are crucial for enabling large-scale, reproducible analyses of brain stimulation data, pointing toward real-time monitoring of brain state to make neuromodulation therapies more precise and predictable.
Written by urgent.news from Medical Xpress's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
