Electrical stimulation of the human claustrum.

To probe the causal importance of the claustrum in human subjective experience, we delivered electrical pulses either unilaterally or bilaterally within the core of this structure in five neurosurgical patients implanted with intracranial electrodes. Patients reported subjective experiences in various sensory domains and exhibited reflexive movements after real but not sham stimulations. However, none of the stimulations evoked loss of consciousness or lack of subjective awareness even with strong bilateral stimulations. Our study is the first to probe the effects of electrical perturbation of human claustrum through electrodes implanted within the claustrum itself and provide novel causal information about the human claustrum.