The objective is to understand how amygdala activation affects other medial temporal lobe structures to prioritize long-term memories. The project is relevant to disorders of memory and to disorders involving affect and memory, including traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Must be able to understand and speak English.
Able to provide informed consent.
Diagnosed with epilepsy.
Scheduled to undergo long-term intra-cranial video monitoring for seizure onset localization.
Unable to understand and speak English.
Unable to provide informed consent.
Not diagnosed with epilepsy.
Single group
Intracranial Stimulation
DeviceElectrodes localized to the BLA will be stimulated with either active-BLAES (0.5-3.5 mA, theta-modulated gamma burst) electrical stimulation for a 1-sec duration immediately following item image presentation or sham-BLAES (zero-amplitude). At later stages of the project, stimulation parameters and timing will be varied and triggered not at random, but by real-time closed-loop analysis of memory biomarkers in the medial temporal lobe.
Free recall memory discriminability index (proportion recalled)
Proportion of items (objects, associations, and scenes) accurately recalled during the delayed recall trial will be compared with and without BLAES for each participant in a within subject design. Subsets of items may be tested after durations up to a month after initial presentation.
Recognition memory discriminability index (proportion recalled)
Proportion of items (objects, associations, and scenes) accurately recognized during the delayed recognition trial will be compared with and without BLAES for each participant in a within subject design. Subsets of items may be tested after durations up to a month after initial presentation.
Location of single pulse evoked potential (SPEP) response to amygdala stimulation
Measured by presence of the evoked potential in different brain subregions (hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex).
Amplitude of SPEP response to amygdala stimulation
Measured in microvolts.
Latency of SPEP response to amygdala stimulation
Measured in milliseconds.
Local field potential (LFP) of good memory state
Measured by relative power spectral frequency recorded at time of item presentation that predicts accurate subsequent memory performance.
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