Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Advances in Electrocorticography

Abstract

The Seventh International Workshop on Advances in Electrocorticography (ECoG) convened in Washington, DC, on November 13–14, 2014. Electrocorticography-based research continues to proliferate widely across basic science and clinical disciplines. The 2014 workshop highlighted advances in neurolinguistics, brain-computer interface, functional mapping, and seizure termination facilitated by advances in the recording and analysis of the ECoG signal. The following proceedings document is an attempt at summarizing the content of this past year’s successful multidisciplinary gathering.

Neurolinguistic and machine-learning perspectives on direct speech BCIs for restoration of naturalistic communication

“…ECoG is more and more frequently being used in neurolinguistic experiments [26,27], and it has proven well suited to the study of the neuronal signatures of expressive language. Previous ECoG research has shown that spatially and temporally specific neuronal effects can be obtained in the fronto-temporo-parietal cortex during overt speech production [28].…”

“…Linguistically grounded ECoG studies, however, are still a handful, and one main challenge in current research is 'to break down language function into computational primitives suitable for biology' (D. Poeppel in [26]). This is, in our opinion, a particularly urgent call for studies on speech production.…”

Neurolinguistic Research on the Romance Languages

“…With ECoG the cortical activity is recorded placing a set of electrodes directly in contact with the exposed brain after cranioctomy in the operating room (Ritaccio et al, 2015). Compared with the EEG, ECoG allows for the detection of more subtle voltage differences and for a better spatial definition, because the signal does not undergo dispersion and attenuation due to the skull resistance.…”

Decoding Inner Speech Using Electrocorticography: Progress and Challenges Toward a Speech Prosthesis

“…In this review article, we describe recent research findings on understanding and decoding the neural correlates associated with inner speech, for targeting communication assistive technologies. We focused on studies that have used electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in the human cortex, as this promising technique allows monitoring brain activity with high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution, as compared to electroencephalographic recordings, and the electrodes cover broader brain areas compared to intracortical recordings (Ritaccio et al, 2015 ). We discuss different decoding and experimental strategies to deal with common challenges that are encountered when tackling inner speech decoding.…”