Simutaneous fMRI and EEG of Epileptogenic Brain Regions

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study will provide the candidate a five year opportunity to further develop his research skills and to focus his efforts on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) research that he has conducted with his sponsors since 1995. The study's ultimate goal is to evaluate simultaneous fMRI and EEG (fMRI/EEG) recordings as a means to accurately localize primary epileptogenic regions, the regions responsible for seizures. The importance of this rests in the current absence of any technique for accurate epileptogenic region localization, and the potential clinical benefit of such localization for the hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone whose seizures are refractory to current treatments. fMRI/EEG is a new technique in human brain mapping that depicts highly localized cerebrovascular changes as occur during epileptic discharges on EEG. Because fMRI/EEG is sensitive to metabolic characteristics, it potentially may distinguish the primary epileptogenic region through its metabolic difference from other regions. Our approach will employ statistical comparisons between fMRI/EEG results and the results of multiple other assessments available to our epilepsy surgery program. These assessments include scalp EEG, intracranial EEG, EEG source modeling, magnetoencephalography, tissue pathology, epilepsy surgery evaluation outcome, and epilepsy surgery outcome. Overall, the study capitalizes upon an especially strong environment with established infrastructures in clinical epilepsy, epilepsy research and human brain mapping. The candidate's academic position spans UCLA's Brain Mapping Center and Seizure Disorder Center, and the sponsors are the respective directors of the fMRI and epilepsy programs. With a background of graduate research in nuclear magnetic resonance and fellowship training in clinical epilepsy, the candidate is developing a career in clinical research focused on the application of human brain mapping techniques toward epilepsy. [unreadable] [unreadable]