Alan David Kaye • Scott Francis Davis
Editors

2014

Electrophysiological stimulation and recording was used in the operating room by researchers as early as the 1930s to study the functional organization of the cerebral cortex [ 1–4 ]. Seminal studies by scientists such as Penfield and Celesia led to our modern understanding of the functional organization of the cerebral cortex. This early work paved the way for further investigations into the utility of intraoperative electrophysiological recordings in protecting the nervous system during surgery. By the 1960s, facial nerve stimulation was being used during surgery for vestibular schwannoma to prevent postoperative facial nerve palsies.