Title: High-resolution electrophysiological mapping of effective connectivity of lateral prefrontal cortex

Sofía Avalos-Alais - PhD Candidate, NeuroStim team, INS

Aix-Marseille Université
INS - Faculté de Médecine, 27, Boulevard Jean Moulin
Marseille, 13005, France

Salle 52

The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) serves as a critical hub for higher-order cognitive and executive functions in the human brain, coordinating brain networks whose disruption has been implicated in many neurological and psychiatric disorders. While transcranial brain stimulation treatments often target the LPFC, our current understanding of connectivity profiles guiding these interventions based on electrophysiology remains limited. 

Here, we present a high-resolution probabilistic map of bidirectional effective connectivity between the LPFC and widespread cortical and subcortical regions. This map is derived from intracranial evoked potential analysis of 48,797 intracerebral direct electrical stimulation runs across 759 implantations in 724 patients with refractory epilepsy (368 male, 354 female, two unspecified; mean age 24±13.5 years). We mapped connectivity between brain parcels with adaptive resolution – higher resolution in the LPFC and lower elsewhere – maintaining statistical power while achieving 95% average confidence interval ~0.04 for probability estimates. 

These comprehensive connectivity maps provide a new detailed electrophysiological foundation for understanding the functional anatomy of LPFC and guiding targeted brain stimulation protocols.

Zoom link: https://univ-amu-fr.zoom.us/j/86932285282?pwd=bjRWQ3ozd0ZiNFJOS2ZWSGlzcDFNdz09