Provided herein are a method and system are provided for the localization of clinically relevant electrophysiological signals necessary for the proper placement of the electrodes for nervous system stimulation. The system provides electrical and mechanical means to stimulate or excite neural structures in order to elicit specific neural responses. The method can include mechanical vibratory stimulation, cutaneous electrical stimulation, electrical stimulation of the peripheral nerves, or photic stimulation, and recording of local field potentials and extracting evoked potentials in response to stimulation. The method also includes extracting components of the evoked potentials that relate the signal in the evoked potentials to specific anatomical structures and localization of the source of the evoked potentials recorded so as to identify the location of the source relative to the recording electrode with high resolution by sampling the evoked potentials with a relative large (macro) electrode that is moved in small incremental steps.
Method and system for physiological target localization from macroelectrode recordings and monitoring spinal cord function