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ECoG Correlation Variation for Epilepsy Research

Abstract

Ziv Yekutieli and Eshel Ben-Jacob

Epilepsy is a well-known affliction characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures affecting 1-2% of the population. Other than the actual seizure and the risks involved in it, the sudden and unpredictable nature of the seizure is one of the most disabling aspects of epilepsy. As such, finding a method capable of predicting epileptic seizures would open new therapeutic possibilities.

When using electrocorticography for capturing brain activity of epileptic patients, usually, it is the clear increase in the brain activity that is recorded during the seizure. The data is usually used in order to find the probable focus of the seizure. Using the same data, we have applied a method that was used for another disorder (Ataxia Telangiectasia), for obtaining quantitative information about changes in the network correlation, rather than network activity. We show that this provides insight for the epileptic brain behavior, demonstrating that other locations of the brain are involved in the seizure other than the focus, and that there might be early indications for the seizure. These findings can potentially be used in order to decrease seizure likelihood.