Grant: Operating Grant

Epilepsy affects about 1% of the general population. One-third of epilepsy patients suffer seizures that do not respond to drug treatments. Uncontrolled epilepsy has devastating socio-economic consequences, is harmful to the brain and is associated with higher mortality. In these patients, there is a lesion that irritates the brain and causes seizures. Surgery is the only effective treatment for them, provided that the lesion is found. Indeed, more than 90% become free of seizures and enjoy greatly improved quality of life when the lesion is removed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made it possible to detect lesions. However, many times, the brain abnormality is tiny and very difficult to find. In these circumstances, patients have electrodes surgically inserted inside their brain. Such procedures are time consuming and expensive as they involve prolonged hospitalizations. Moreover, in many cases, these invasive procedures are not able to find the abnormal area. This project aims at developing new MRI automated techniques for improving the detection of brain lesions. We will also devise methods to inform patients about their chance to become seizure free after surgery. Thus, our research could make surgery available to many more patients, and reduce the complexity and cost of the pre-surgical evaluation.