Re-establishing the merits of electrical brain stimulation
Abstract
During the past decades, direct electrical stimulation (DES) has been a key method not only in determining the organization of brain networks mediating movement, language, and cognition but also in establishing many central concepts of modern neuroscience, such as the electrical nature of neural transmission, the localization of brain functions, and the homuncular arrangement of sensorimotor areas. However, recent criticisms have questioned the utility of DES and argued that data collected with this technique may be flawed and unreliable. As with every other neuroscientific method, DES does have limitations. However, existing evidence argues strongly for its validity and usefulness by demonstrating that DES produces highly specific outcomes at well-defined anatomical sites and significantly minimizes postoperative deficits in brain-damaged patients.
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iES throughout the brain has long been known to cause radical, yet replicable, changes in conscious experience.
“Despite its limitations, iES provides probably the best means of causally perturbing brain function in humans, and iES throughout the brain has long been known to cause radical, yet replicable, changes in conscious experience (for comprehensive reviews, see Selimbeyoglu and Parvizi, 2010;Desmurget et al., 2013).”
From Does the Prefrontal Cortex Play an Essential Role in Consciousness? Insights from Intracranial Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain (2021) · cites this paper as Desmurget et al., 2013
iES provides probably the best means of causally perturbing brain function in humans.
“Despite its limitations, iES provides probably the best means of causally perturbing brain function in humans, and iES throughout the brain has long been known to cause radical, yet replicable, changes in conscious experience (for comprehensive reviews, see Selimbeyoglu and Parvizi, 2010;Desmurget et al., 2013).”
From Does the Prefrontal Cortex Play an Essential Role in Consciousness? Insights from Intracranial Electrical Stimulation of the Human Brain (2021) · cites this paper as Desmurget et al., 2013
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“However, distant and undirect effects of EBS have also been described and the causal effect of EBS is deemed controversial (Borchers et al., 2011; Desmurget et al., 2013).”
BackgroundKoch, C. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0925-7 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Desmurget, M., Song, Z., Mottolese, C., & Sirigu, A.
- Affiliations
- Lyon 1 Université (FR)
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-09
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 442-449
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1975438573
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-12-BSV4-0018, ANR-11-LABX-0042)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurology and Historical Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Neurological disorders and treatments
- Keywords
- direct electrical stimulation, brain mapping, homunculus, sensorimotor cortex, brain-damaged patients, postoperative deficits
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain, Brain Mapping, Electric Stimulation, Humans, Brain Waves
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