iELVis: An open source MATLAB toolbox for localizing and visualizing human intracranial electrode data

Abstract

BackgroundIntracranial electrical recordings (iEEG) and brain stimulation (iEBS) are invaluable human neuroscience methodologies. However, the value of such data is often unrealized as many laboratories lack tools for localizing electrodes relative to anatomy. To remedy this, we have developed a MATLAB toolbox for intracranial electrode localization and visualization, iELVis.\n\nNew MethodiELVis uses existing tools (BioImage Suite, FSL, and FreeSurfer) for preimplant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) segmentation, neuroimaging coregistration, and manual identification of electrodes in postimplant neuroimaging.\n\nSubsequently, iELVis implements methods for correcting electrode locations for postimplant brain shift with millimeter-scale accuracy and provides interactive visualization on 3D surfaces or in 2D slices with optional functional neuroimaging overlays. iELVis also localizes electrodes relative to FreeSurfer-based atlases and can combine data across subjects via the FreeSurfer average brain.\n\nResultsIt takes 30-60 minutes of user time and 12-24 hours of computer time to localize and visualize electrodes from one brain. We demonstrate iELViss functionality by showing that three methods for mapping primary hand somatosensory cortex (iEEG, iEBS, and functional MRI) provide highly concordant results.\n\nComparison with Existing MethodsiELVis is the first public software for electrode localization that corrects for brain shift, maps electrodes to an average brain, and supports neuroimaging overlays. Moreover, its interactive visualizations are powerful and its tutorial material is extensive.\n\nConclusionsiELVis promises to speed the progress and enhance the robustness of intracranial electrode research. The software and extensive tutorial materials are freely available as part of the EpiSurg software project: https://github.com/episurg/episurg