PRESURGICAL FUNCTIONAL LOCALIZATION OF PRIMARY SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX BY DIPOLE TRACING METHOD OF SCALP-SKULL-BRAIN HEAD MODEL APPLIED TO SOMATOSENSORY-EVOKED POTENTIAL

The aim of the present study was to explore the utility of dipole trac ing (DT) of a scalp-skull-brain (SSB) head model in preoperative funct ional localization of the human brain. Nine patients who underwent sur gery of mass lesions around the central sulcus (CS) were employed. By using SSB/DT, dipole source location of early cortical components of t he somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) was estimated before surgery. Motor cortex, CS and primary somatosensory cortex were determined by c ortical SEP during surgery. After surgery precise functional mapping w as reproduced in MRI, and the accuracy of DT was evaluated by measurin g the distance between estimated dipole source and the posterior bank of the CS. We defined this distance as localization error of DT. In 4 cases without structural change around the sensorimotor cortex, locali zation error ranged from 1 to 4 mm with an average of 2 mm, In 5 cases with structural alteration of sensorimotor cortex, localization error ranged from 6 to 10 mm with an average of 8 mm. The difference in loc alization error between the two groups was statistically significant, and may have been caused by changes of conductance near sensorimotor c ortex in the latter group. Functional localization by DT was accurate and useful. But localization error could not be ignored in cases with structural alteration in the sensorimotor cortex. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience Ireland Ltd.