This lecture gives an overview on the article “Individual brain structure and modelling predict seizure propagation” where 15 subjects with epilepsy were modelled to predict individual epileptogenic zones.
With the TVB GUI we will model seizure spread and the effect of lesioning the connectome. The impact of cutting edges in the network on seizure spreading will be visualized.
Topics covered in this lesson by Paul Triebkorn
- Individual epilepsy modelling
- Impact of connectome manipulation on seizure spread
Related publication
Individual brain structure and modelling predict seizure propagation, published in Brain, March 2017 by Timothée Proix, Fabrice Bartolomei, Maxime Guye, Viktor K. Jirsa
doi: 10.1093/brain/awx004
Abstract
See Lytton (doi:10.1093/awx018) for a scientific commentary on this article.
Neural network oscillations are a fundamental mechanism for cognition, perception and consciousness. Consequently, perturbations of network activity play an important role in the pathophysiology of brain disorders.
When structural information from non-invasive brain imaging is merged with mathematical modelling, then generative brain network models constitute personalized in silico platforms for the exploration of causal mechanisms of brain function and clinical hypothesis testing.
We here demonstrate with the example of drug-resistant epilepsy that patient-specific virtual brain models derived from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging have sufficient predictive power to improve diagnosis and surgery outcome.
In partial epilepsy, seizures originate in a local network, the so-called epileptogenic zone, before recruiting other close or distant brain regions. We create personalized large-scale brain networks for 15 patients and simulate the individual seizure propagation patterns. Model validation is performed against the presurgical stereotactic electroencephalography data and the standard-of-care clinical evaluation.
We demonstrate that the individual brain models account for the patient seizure propagation patterns, explain the variability in postsurgical success, but do not reliably augment with the use of patient-specific connectivity.
Our results show that connectome-based brain network models have the capacity to explain changes in the organization of brain activity as observed in some brain disorders, thus opening up avenues towards discovery of novel clinical interventions.