The University of Chicago neuroscience community is host to a diverse group of researchers investigating epilepsy and seizure disorders. The faculty of Department of Neurology play a key role in this research, conducting critical clinical and neurophysiological studies, and providing valuable collaborations with the neuroscience researchers in other departments.
John Ebersole MD directs a research program aimed at:
- Clarifying the relationships between cerebral electrical activity and the resultant scalp EEG; and
- Developing and validating computational techniques of functional imaging and seizure localization using scalp, intracranial EEG, and magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Over the past fifteen years research from his laboratory has established the usefulness of spike and seizure dipole modeling with both EEG and MEG in order to localize non-invasively epileptogenic foci in epilepsy surgery candidates. He is a foremost proponent of and authority on the use of source models in the evaluation of epilepsy. Ongoing projects include studies of the accuracy of dipole and other extended source models of epileptic foci using simultaneously recorded scalp and intracranial EEG, comparisons of real-time EEG imaging with other functional imaging techniques using three-dimensional co-registrations, and the development of a new spatio-temporal analysis technique for intracranial EEG utilizing field and source display on the patient’s reconstructed cortex. These direct applications of neurocomputational, neuroimaging, and electrical engineering developments to the evaluation of epileptic foci in the human brain are an example of translational research at its best.
James Tao MD PhD is interested in determining the cerebral substrates of scalp EEG epileptiform patterns, in order to improve the accuracy of non-invasive seizure localization during epilepsy surgery. His long-term interests include investigations of the mechanisms of epileptogenesis and of new modalities of epilepsy therapy. Current projects include:
- The impact of cerebral source area and synchrony on recording scalp EEG ictal patterns; and
- The pathophysiology of interictal temporal delta activity (ITDA) and its value in localizing epileptogenic zone.
His long term goals are to investigate the electrophysiological behavior of cerebral epileptogenic networks and the mechanism of epileptogenesis at the neural network level in order to identify new preventive and therapeutic modalities.
Wim Van Drongelen PhD (Department of Pediatrics) has focussed his research on the long-range goal of optimizing therapeutic intervention in pediatric epilepsy by improved spatial and temporal localization of seizure activity and examining the underlying mechanisms in the pathogenesis of seizures. His research focuses on:
- Underlying neuronal mechanisms in epilepsy (synchrony, recruitment, oscillation, weak coupling);
- Relationships between neuronal activity at different scales (neuron, network, brain);
- Detection and prediction of brain electrical activity during seizures using various signal processing techniques (correlation dimension, Kolmogorov entropy, wavelet analysis);
- Localization of sources from surface recordings (dipole analysis, MUSIC, LORETA, spatial filtering); and
- Monitoring of the nervous system in the intensive care environment (EEG, evoked potential