Clinical Study of How Information Flows Across the Human Cortical Sheet Layers (Laminae), Aiming to Discover Key Principles of Laminar Circuits and Information Flow for Complex Behavior.

This is a basic science study of a missing dimension of human brain function, how information flows the six layers of the brain. The research will involve neurosurgery patients and controls in laminar-resolution functional MRI at 7 Tesla during a working memory and language task. The neurosurgery patients will be involved in intracranial recordings with FDA approved electrodes capable of recording across the cortical layers, or electrodes with FDA Investigational Device Exemption. The neurosurgery patients will also be able to provide tissue samples for genomics research from tissue that would be clinically removed, resected or disrupted as part of the clinical treatment. The outcome is unprecedented insights into this missing dimension of human brain function which will help to advance biomedical science and could be crucial for developing better patient diagnostic and treatment options for a host of brain disorders where laminar information flow is disrupted but currently cannot be effectively studied.