MINI REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgical Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicFrontiers in Cancer Neuroscience: Unraveling the Complex Interplay of Neural Mechanisms in Tumorigenesis and TherapeuticsView all articles
Electrophysiology of gliomas: current science, implications, and opportunities
Provisionally accepted
Hanna E. Minns, BS1*
Nemanja Useinovic, MD1Jordan L. Smith, MD, PhD1
Sushant Puri1
Ahmed M. Raslan, MD, FAANS1
Angelique C. Paulk, PhD2,3
Daniel R. Cleary, MD, PhD1,4- 1Department of Neurological Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, United States
- 2Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- 3Department of Neurology, Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- 4Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, OR, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Gliomas engage in bidirectional communication with neurons, promoting hyperexcitable conditions that enable neural circuit infiltration and drive tumor growth. These neuron-glioma interactions create patterns of aberrant neural activity that can be detected using intracranial electrodes. While conventional clinical electrodes are limited by low spatiotemporal resolution and lack of single-unit precision, recent advances in neural engineering have introduced multiple types of high-density electrodes that provide orders of magnitude greater spatial resolution. Pairing these tools with emerging characterizations of novel, glioma-associated electrophysiological signatures offers new opportunities to understand disease progression and improve surgical and medical management for gliomas and glioma-related epilepsy. In this review, we begin by outlining foundational research in cancer neuroscience and neuron-glioma interactions through the lens of extracellular dynamics. We then discuss established and emerging methods for intraoperative evaluation of neural activity, what is known about glioma-associated oscillatory and aperiodic trends, and implications for future studies. Finally, we consider the therapeutic potential of neuromodulation for gliomas.
Keywords: Glioma, Glioblastoma, Electrophysiology, Neuron-glioma interactions, Brain Mapping, high density electrodes, Neuromodulation
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Minns, BS, Useinovic, MD, Smith, MD, PhD, Puri, Raslan, MD, FAANS, Paulk, PhD and Cleary, MD, PhD. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hanna E. Minns, BS
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.