Short term memory

Which brain regions are involved in memory processing and what are the brain activity signatures of memory? Answering this question can potentially help in developing brain stimulation techniques that enhance memory in patients suffering from memory loss, for e.g., in traumatic brain injury.

We addressed the above question using intracranial EEG (iEEG) data collected from epilepsy patients as they performed a short term memory task. In the task, patients were requested to learn and recall lists of words, while iEEG data was collected when patients were shown the words.

We developed automated techniques to identify implanted electrodes measuring memory related activity. The methods are orders of magnitude faster than currently used semi-automated techniques with over 95% accuracy. On data from over 100 people with more than 12,000 electrodes, the methods led to the discovery of a novel brain region for memory processing and helped predict individualized memory performance.

Relevant publications

• C. Topcu, V. S. Marks, K. V. Saboo, M. Lech, P. Nejedly, V. Kremen, G. A. Worrell, M T. Kucewicz (2022). Hotspot of human verbal memory encoding in the left anterior prefrontal cortex. eBioMedicine.

• V. S. Marks, K. V. Saboo, C. Topcu, T. P. Thayib, P. Nejedly, V. Kremen, G. A. Worrell, M. T. Kucewicz (2021). Independent dynamics of slow, intermediate, and fast intracranial EEG spectral activities during human memory formation. NeuroImage.

• K. V. Saboo, Y. Varatharajah, B. M. Berry, V. Kremen, M. R. Sperling, K. A. Davis, B. C. Jobst, R. E. Gross, B. Lega, S. A. Sheth, G. A. Worrell, R. K. Iyer, M. T. Kucewicz (2019). Unsupervised machine learning classification of electrophysiologically active electrodes during human cognitive task performance. Nature Scientific Reports 9.

• M. T. Kucewicz, K. V. Saboo, B. M. Berry, V. Kremen, L. R. Miller, F. Khadjevand, C. S. Inman, P. Wanda, M. R. Sperling, R. Gorniak, K. A. Davis, B. C. Jobst, B. Lega, S. A. Sheth, D. S. Rizzuto, R. K. Iyer, M. J. Kahana, G. A. Worrell (2019). Human verbal memory encoding is hierarchically distributed in a continuous processing stream. eNeuro 6.1.