Dipole-tracing of 'awareness' attenuating the cortical components of somatosensory evoked potentials

Using the dipole-tracing method, the source generators of N18, P22 and P40 of the somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) were estimated as the equivalent dipole. After voluntary action of the thumb flexion, no changes were observed in N18 or P40, but the amplitude of P22 was suppressed. The after-effects of intention accompanied by a voluntary action or the subject's awareness that electrical stimulation will be given after the voluntary action were treated as 'awareness'. By subtracting the pure SEP from SEP during 'awareness', it was found that the equivalent dipole of 'awareness' of P22 was located at the same region of pure P22, but the vector was of opposite orientation. 'Awareness' attenuated the perceptive potential of SEP like P22 generated in the cortex.

Dipole-tracing method applied to human brain potentials

A new computer-aided method was developed to estimate the location of an electric source generator (e.g. a current dipole) in the human brain. Brain activity such as somatosensory evoked potentials was recorded with 21 surface electrodes over the scalp. To solve the inverse problem, it was assumed that only one dipole is elicited at a given time, and that the head is embedded in an infinite and homogeneous conductor. The exact geometry of the human head was measured from 17 slices of CT-images of a real head to arrange a human head model. A dipole with a given moment and location is assumed in the head model. Potential distribution elicited by the dipole is compared with potential distribution which was the actual recorded one. The optimal dipole location was calculated, using the simplex method. Hence, the optimal dipole moment was obtained. The accuracy of estimation as an equivalent dipole was expressed in terms of dipolarity.