Hacia una definición fisiológica positiva de los núcleos cerebrales profundos en humanos

INTRODUCTION. Using microelectrodes for recording purposes in deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven to be very useful. Their efficiency can be improved by characterising the properties of extracellular action potentials (EAPs). PATIENTS AND METHODS. We analysed the records of nine patients who underwent surgery for epilepsy or aggressiveness under general anaesthesia. The properties of the EAPs of the centromedian, ventral intermediate, ventrocaudal and posteromedial hypothalamic nuclei of the thalamus have been determined. RESULTS. We have analysed 706 thalamic and 142 hypothalamic cells. The proportion of cell types was found to be specific to each cell nucleus. The most frequent cell type was P1P2N1 (59.5%), followed by N1P1N2 (23.1%). The first phase of the EAP is highly variable. The properties of the EAP phases of the same morphology differ greatly from one nucleus to another. CONCLUSIONS. We have shown that several deep brain nuclei have properties that are specific to the morphology of the EAPs. This will allow for improved localisation of these nuclei during DBS.