Voxeloc: A time-saving graphical user interface for localizing and visualizing stereo-EEG electrodes

• Published in: Journal of neuroscience methods 2024-07, Vol.407, p.110154-110154, Article 110154
• Main Authors: Monney, Jonathan, Dallaire, Shannon E., Stoutah, Lydia, Fanda, Lora, Mégevand, Pierre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Electrocorticography - instrumentation; Electrocorticography - methods; Electrode localization; Electrode visualization; Electrodes, Implanted; Electroencephalography - instrumentation; Electroencephalography - methods; Epilepsy surgery; FreeSurfer; Graphical user interface; Humans; Intracranial EEG; Matlab; Reproducibility of Results; Software; Stereo-EEG; User-Computer Interface
• ISSN: 0165-0270; 1872-678X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110154

Thanks to its unrivalled spatial and temporal resolutions and signal-to-noise ratio, intracranial EEG (iEEG) is becoming a valuable tool in neuroscience research. To attribute functional properties to cortical tissue, it is paramount to be able to determine precisely the localization of each electrode with respect to a patient’s brain anatomy. Several software packages or pipelines offer the possibility to localize manually or semi-automatically iEEG electrodes. However, their reliability and ease of use may leave to be desired. Voxeloc (voxel electrode locator) is a Matlab-based graphical user interface to localize and visualize stereo-EEG electrodes. Voxeloc adopts a semi-automated approach to determine the coordinates of each electrode contact, the user only needing to indicate the deep-most contact of each electrode shaft and another point more proximally. With a deliberately streamlined functionality and intuitive graphical user interface, the main advantages of Voxeloc are ease of use and inter-user reliability. Additionally, oblique slices along the shaft of each electrode can be generated to facilitate the precise localization of each contact. Voxeloc is open-source software and is compatible with the open iEEG-BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) format. Localizing full patients’ iEEG implants was faster using Voxeloc than two comparable software packages, and the inter-user agreement was better. Voxeloc offers an easy-to-use and reliable tool to localize and visualize stereo-EEG electrodes. This will contribute to democratizing neuroscience research using iEEG. •Designed to be fast and easy to use and to yield reproducible results.•Outputs oblique slices along stereo-EEG electrodes to assist visualization.•Open-source, compatible with iEEG-BIDS specification to facilitate data exchange.