Studying brain network changes in epilepsy by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging, intracranial electroencephalography and opto-/chemogenetics to unravel biomarkers for disease prognosis and efficacy of anti-epileptic treatments

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. In about 30% to
40% of the patients with epilepsy, the seizures are not sufficiently controlled with anti-epileptic
drugs (AEDs). Currently, it is still very difficult to predict which patients will respond to AEDs or
deep brain stimulation (DBS), another treatment possibility. Research has shown that abnormal
functional brain networks could be involved in the development of epilepsy and in the generation
and spread of seizures. Gaining more insight into these networks will be useful for the
development of new epilepsy therapies and could help to find biomarkers to predict which
patients will respond to treatment with AEDs or DBS. In this project, we will combine functional
magnetic resonance imaging and intracranial electroencephalography to investigate how
functional brain networks change during the development of epilepsy. We will also use new
neuromodulation techniques to obtain more information about the epileptic brain network. Then
we will investigate whether the severity of epilepsy and the therapeutic effect of AEDs and DBS
are related to specific epilepsy-related changes in the brain network and use these relationships to
find biomarkers for the development of epilepsy and for responsiveness to treatment with AEDs or
DBS.