Speech memories and human brain recordings in epilepsy patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Speech memories and human brain recordings in epilepsy patients
IRAS ID
315800
Contact name
Emmanuel Biau
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
not applicable, not applicable
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Speech memories are like the internal movies of our lives, allowing us to encode and replay past events with verbal content such as for our favourite movie scenes. The synchronisation of activities between the groups of neurons during speech perception determines success in associating auditory and visual information into rich “multisensory” memories. However, it is unclear how the brain merges information from the senses to form such memories. The proposed research addresses that question by recording the local activity of neuron assemblies directly from important regions for memory in the Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL). The activity of small groups of neurons will be recorded in implanted epilepsy patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation in case of medically refractory epilepsy. At The Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgical Service of the Walton Centre NHS Trust in Liverpool, patients are implanted with electrodes in order to monitor their brain activity for up to two weeks and to localize the epileptic focus responsible for repeated seizures (and subsequently resect it). Patients willing to take part in our research will be tested with memory tasks requiring to memorise short audio-visual movie clips, images or sounds with verbal content presented on a laptop, and later to recall these stimuli. Because electrode implantation is always motivated by clinical considerations, our experiments will not interfere with the clinical purpose and will not put any additional physical or psychological burden on patients. Furthermore, every experimental session will last no more than one hour to limit fatigue. We will only acquire neural activity during the time-windows in which the patients agreed to take part in our memory experiments. The proposed research will constitute a fundamental push forward in our understanding of human speech memory.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NW/0304
Date of REC Opinion
11 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion